Braemar Gathering
The Braemar Gathering takes place every year on the first Saturday in September in the Scottish village of Braemar in Aberdeenshire . The festival, which is under the patronage of the British monarch, is one of the most famous Highland Games in Scotland.
history
It is said that the first games in the area of what is now Braemar were held over 900 years ago by King Malcolm Canmore . At that time, the first run on the Braemar to the east of neighboring Craig Choinnich is said to have taken place in order to find the best messenger runners for the king. A mountain run is still part of the Gathering's program, but on the 859 m high Morrone to the south . However, today's games can only be traced back to the beginning of the 19th century. The Braemar Royal Highland Society , the organizer of the Games, was founded in 1815 as the Braemar Wright Society . The company, which was originally founded as the Friendly Society (comparable to a mutual insurance association), received its current name in 1866, when the addition "Royal" was added to the name at the request of Queen Victoria . The Society in Braemar hosted the first games, roughly based on today's model, in 1832.
Queen Victoria and her husband, Prince Consort Albert , spent their first summer vacation in the Highlands in 1848, where the Duke of Fife had given them Balmoral Castle , some 20 kilometers east of Braemar. Both enjoyed their stay so much that the royal family bought Balmoral Castle as a summer residence. The Queen and her husband attended the Braemar Gathering for the first time in 1848 and took over the patronage. Since then, the respective British monarch has the official patronage of the Braemar Gathering, followed by the Duke of Fife as the local landowner. All monarchs since Queen Victoria have taken over the patronage and attended the Gathering in their successor, Queen Elizabeth II was absent only four times in the first 60 years of her reign. Only after the death of Princess Diana in 1997 was the Gathering canceled. In 2020 the gathering was canceled due to the COVID-19 pandemic in the UK .
Venue
The Braemar Gathering will take place in the specially reserved arena in The Princess Royal and Duke of Fife Memorial Park on the southwestern outskirts of Braemar. In addition to covered grandstand seats and the Royal Box , which is reserved for the royal family, there are additional seats and standing areas around the arena. A total of between 10,000 and 15,000 spectators and several hundred musicians and athletes take part in the event every year.
procedure
The following competitions are part of the program in Braemar and some of them take place simultaneously at different locations in the arena:
- Heavy Events with tossing the caber ( Tossing the Caber ) , weight throw ( Throwing Weight ) , Weight high throw ( Throwing over the bar ) , Throwing of Hammers (similar hammer throw, but with a handle on the hammer instead of a steel wire) , putting the Stone (similar shot put) ;
- Pipe bands with competition of the bands as well as multiple appearances of all bands as massed pipe bands ;
- Solo piping ;
- Tug of War (Tug o war) (competition for units of the United Kingdom Armed Forces );
- Highland dancing ;
- Running competitions ;
- Mountain run .
For the most important competitions, the prizes are presented by the Queen. There is also a sack race for children .
Web links
- Official site of the Braemar Gathering (English)
- Hannes Hintermeier: Highland Games: Bring in the pipes and drums! , Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung , September 10, 2013 (article on the Braemar Gathering)
Individual evidence
- ↑ Hannes Hintermeier: Highland Games: Bring in the pipes and drums! , Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung , September 10, 2013, accessed on October 8, 2017
- ↑ BBC: Thousands flock to annual Braemar Gathering. September 2, 2017. Retrieved October 8, 2017
- ↑ 2020 Gregor Wilson: Gathering - An update. May 8, 2020: Cancellation of 2020 Braemar Gathering , at www.braemargathering.org , accessed July 5, 2020
- ↑ Braemar Gathering: Events , accessed October 8, 2017