Some people take their culture seriously. The Scottish take theirs very seriously.
They’re proud of their whisky, they’re proud of golf, they’re proud of being able to toss giant poles (called cabers) around while other cultures toss things like horseshoes. And perhaps most of all, they’re proud of their tartans.
Thus… the Scottish Register of Tartans.
From the website:
The Scottish Register of Tartans was established by an act of the Scottish Parliament in November 2008, following a Member’s Bill submitted by Jamie McGrigor MSP in February 2007. The full text of the Scottish Register of Tartans Act 2008 is available to read online.
Members of the Scottish Parliament voted to establish a single, independent Scottish register of tartans which promotes and preserves information about historic and contemporary tartans from Scotland and throughout the world.
It’s not free to add your tartan. It costs 70 pounds to attempt to register a tartan, with other fees for things like researching aid or replacement certificates. The site does include features like showing the ten most recent registered patterns, a search feature for established patterns, and a design aid for those seeking a family, locality or corporate tartan of their own.
Do you want to know the official tartan of Zimbabwe? Here’s the link.
The Joker design, created for Jack Nicholson’s trousers in his Batman movie?
The Bomb Disposal tartan, restricted for use by bomb disposal techs and their immediate families? Here you go:
Remember, when you see someone wearing a kilt, that pattern often isn’t simply meant to be pretty. It often means something. And now you, too, have a place to find out exactly what that meaning might be, so you can be on the good side of people whose idea of a good time is hard alcohol, giant swords, running around half-naked in bitterly cold weather and throwing giant logs around for fun.
Question of the night: What’s something interesting from part of your family’s heritage?
