Ward Ceilidh

Pronounced "Kay-lee", Gaelic can be unforgiving with phonetics at times. If you can overlook that and find yourself invited to a church or community Ceilidh, may I suggest that you attend? Matt and I had a lovely time at the Edinburgh Stake Ceilidh last weekend. It was quite the party with an mosaic of swinging kilts along with some lively tunes from a live band which included a drummer and two enthusiastic accordion players, one of which gave cheeky explanations of each dance before they started. 

I first entered in on the fun in the cultural hall (later Matt pointed out this is about the first time that our Mormon terminology was actually more suitable than simply "gym") at the beginning of a traditional Scottish trio dance. Dear Brother Burns didn't give me a moment to get self-conscious about how American I looked and put me in between him and another kilted ward member. And that was that. There I was spinning on the arms of veteran Ceilidh dancers. 

Later on, would you believe that I got Matt to dance? I think his courage came when he saw me dancing the Virginia Reel with a Chinese student in the ward and us having a heck of a time trying to keep up with our group. No one seemed to be bothered though by our antics. So Matt jumped in with me during the Flying Scotsman (aptly named but still not as dizzying as Strip the Willow , which came next). By the end of it all, I think that I was beginning to get what these locals fondly call "Ceilidh arms" as the inside of my elbow was getting rubbed a bit raw and on the verge of bruising. Small price to pay to be a part of such excitement though I would say.

Here's a dimly lit picture of us "Stripping the Willow" and then getting told by our group that we were doing something wrong and screwing everyone up. These Scots are loving in a way but they are definitely a straightforward bunch.

It is hard to saw what the best part of the whole evening was but I think Matt would lean towards watching our fearless 1st counsellor in the Stake Presidency take it upon himself to serenade us as the band took a break and we rested our feet while sipping black current juice from Dixie cups. Here's him finishing up the tail end of "A Bonny Wee Lass". Now tell me, could you see your stake presidency doing karaoke in a kilt like this? What a party!