Central Park

The Daily Plant : Thursday, April 5, 2001

NEW YORKERS CELEBRATE SCOTLAND IN CENTRAL PARK

Photo by Malcolm (Cinema) Pinckney

In March of 1998, Congress designated April 6 Tartan Day, the anniversary of Scotland's Declaration of Arbroath, a statement of cultural identity delivered by the Scottish people to the Pope in 1320, just after St. Andrews Cathedral was built in Scotland.

Last Sunday, April 1, 2001, The American Scottish Foundation held their second annual Tartan Day Parade in Central Park. Families followed bagpipers and Scottish terriers up the length of Literary Walk. With traditional dancers and the bloom of spring to entertain the eye, the event was a fun party for all the families who attended.

Commissioner Henry J. (StarQuest) Stern arrived clothed in his Tartan, a traditional Scottish cloth. Tartans were originally designed with distinct patterns. The use of local dyes and wools indicated the region of the country where the tartan was made, and this led to an association between the land, the community, and its cloth. In addition to tartans for hunting, trade, mourning, and celebration, clan tartans were a worn as an announcement of local identity. With this history in mind, participants in Sunday's parade proudly displayed their tartans, and enjoyed a celebration of cultural identity in a park famous for the welcome it extends to people of all backgrounds.

Commissioner Stern joined Eric Milligan, Lord Provost of City of Edinborough; Michael Baum, Australian Consul General; Tom G. Harris, British Consul General; and Alan (Scotsman) Bain, President, American Scottish Foundation in addressing the crowd assembled.

THIRTEEN YEARS AGO IN THE PLANT
(Friday, April 15 1988)

CIRCUS ELEPHANTS PICNIC AT CENTRAL PARK BRUNCH

Nineteen ponderous pachyderms from the Ringling Bros. & Barnum and Bailey Circus, led by Ringmaster Jim Ragona and surrounded by a contingent of costumed clowns and scantily clad showgirls left Madison Square Garden and pounded their way up Eigth Avenue Tuesday for the first noontime walk in the city in over a decade. Waiting for the elephants were Mayor Edward I. Koch, Commissioner Stern, and children from school districts 1& 10, P.S. 64, P.S. 110, Ethical Culture, Walden and Birch Wathen elementary schools.

QUOTATION FOR THE DAY

"How many ages hence
Shall this our lofty scene be acted o'er
In states unborn and accents yet unknown!"

William Shakespeare (1564-1616)

"Nowhere beats the heart so kindly
As beneath the tartan plaid."

William Edmondstoune Aytoun (1813-1865)

Know Before You Go

Harlem Meer Center (formerly Lasker Rink)

Harlem Meer Center