Moran Taing

Many thanks to everyone who have helped make NACHS activities fun and educational. We DO make a difference!

Election Time!

Election time is coming in December. Please consider either attending the meeting to vote or throwing your hat in for an office!

Renewal Time!

It’s that time of year for renewing your membership….don’t forget!

Holiday Hooley!

It’s time again for the NACHS annual Holiday Hooley!!! The date will be Dec. 21, and the time 6pm. Bring your holiday spirit, an hors d’oeuvres to share and we’ll all have a good time. The Hooley will be at the McKenzies home… 3393 S. Carol Dr.

Holiday Music

For anyone looking for some traditional Christmas music I recommend Alex Beaton’s Christmas Classics. Alex was a staple at the Arizona Highland Celtic Festival until the accident that left him mostly paralyzed from the neck down. This CD brings back all the warmth of days gone by and the magic of Christmas. You can find it on his site…just type in Alex Beaton.

Jim Macleod: Hogmanay PartyTime to get off your arses and get ready to do the Gay Gordons! Jim Macleod, a well-known presenter in the U.K., has done up a typical Hogmanay celebration in fine fashion. The folks turn out from nearby Pitlochry area in all their finery to turn a step or two to some great Scottish music. There are renditions of some of the all-time great tunes from Scotland’s past. The Alexander brothers do a great job with a tribute to the late great Andy Stewart. Blair Castle is the setting for this wonderful event and between the beautiful hall, that is the setting for the evening, and the performances by the Black Watch, you just don’t get much more Scottish than this. The only shortcoming was they didn’t serve a Haggis. Go figure? A fun video that is just over an hour to watch and with Hogmanay looming it is not to be missed.Slainte!Richard McKenzie

The Northern Arizona Celtic Heritage Society (dedicated to presenting, promoting, and preserving Celtic culture)

presents:

A ROBERT BURNS SUPPER

An evening of traditional food, entertainment, poetry, bagpiping celebrating the life of Scotland’s

most famous poet!!!

Feb. 1, 2014 from 5 to 9 Cocktail Hour from 5 to 6

Entertainment starts at 6

The Kilted Cat 2600 W. Kiltie Ln.

Tickets available at: Animas Trading Co. Arizona Music Pro Uptown Billiards

or Jude McKenzie 928-556-3161

Adults-$35.00 Children-$15.00

TICKETS MUST BE PURCHASED BY Jan. 26

Thanks to the City of Flagstaff, Flagstaff Cultural Partners, the Flagstaff Community Foundation, the Arizona

Commission on the Arts and the National Endowment for the Arts for their continued support!

Living Traditions PRESENTATIONS and Flagstaff Cultural Partnerspresent

Master Scottish fiddler Alasdair Fraserand

Cellist Natalie HaasAt the Coconino Center for the Arts

December 12, 7:30 pm

Tickets: $18 in advance/$20 day of show To avoid an online purchasing fee, tickets can also be purchased at the Coconino Center for the Arts

or by calling (928) 779-2300.

Alasdair Fraser and Natalie Haas in ConcertThursday, December 12, 2013, 7:30 p.m.�Coconino Center for the Arts�FLAGSTAFF, AZ – Living Traditions Presentations and Flagstaff Cultural Partners present Master Scottish fiddler Alasdair Fraser and cellist Natalie Haas in concert at the Coconino Center for the Arts. The concert will take place at 7:30pm on December 12, 2013.The musical partnership between Alasdair Fraser, long regarded as Scotland’s premier fiddle ambassador, and the sizzlingly-talented young California cellist Natalie Haas may not seem an obvious one. Fraser, acclaimed by the San Francisco Examiner as “the Michael Jordan of Scottish fiddling,” has a concert and recording career spanning 30 years, with a long list of awards, accolades, television credits, and feature performances on top movie soundtracks (Last of the Mohicans,Titanic).Fraser has been sponsored by the British Council to represent Scotland’s music internationally, and received the Scottish Heritage Center Service Award for outstanding contributions to Scottish culture and traditions.The 25-year-old Haas, a graduate of the Juilliard School of Music, wasn’t even born when Alasdair was winning national fiddle competitions on the other side of the Atlantic. But this seemingly unlikely pairing is the fulfillment of a long-standing musical dream for Fraser, whose cutting-edge musical explorations took him full circle to find a cellist who could help him return the cello to its historical role at the rhythmic heart of Scottish dance music.The duo has performs frequently in Europe, and throughout the US and Canada. They have been featured on NPR’s Performance Today, the Thistle & Shamrock, and Mountain Stage, and represented Scotland at the Smithsonian Museum’s Folklife Festival. In addition, Fraser and Haas have busy teaching schedules, including summer fiddle courses in the US, Scotland, and Spain. Natalie also teaches at the Berklee College of Music in Boston.Alasdair Fraser and Natalie Haas will be performing in concert at The Coconino Center for the Arts, presented by Living Traditions Presentations. Living Traditions Presentations is supported in part by the Arizona Commission on the Arts, which receives support from the State of Arizona and the National Endowment for the Arts and is also supported by the BBB Revenues from the City of Flagstaff and Flagstaff Cultural Partners.The concert takes place on December 12, 2013. Doors open at 6:30 p.m. and show is at 7:30 p.m. Tickets are $18 in advance/$20 day of show. Children’s tickets 17 and under) are $9. To avoid an online purchasing fee, tickets can also be purchased at the Coconino Center for the Arts, at Olives Wild, or by calling (928) 779-2300.

Clyde Puffers and the Crinan CanalBy Bic Waterman, the Virtual Visitor For over a century, beginning in 1856, a fleet of beloved steamboats called Clyde Puffers provided a vital supply link for the west coast and Hebrides Islands of Scotland. The unique design of the original iron-hulled steamboat, the Thomas, set the pattern for hundreds more to follow. The first of the stumpy little cargo ships were just short of 66 feet long, to fit in the Forth and Clyde Canal locks. The ships’ flat bottoms allowed them to beach and unload at low tide – essential in supplying remote towns without proper piers. Power came from a simple steam engine, without a condenser, so that it “puffed” with every stroke. By the 1870s, specialized designs for the puffers were developed for service beyond canals. Some were fitted with condensers, so they no longer puffed, but the name stuck.Popular puffer stories written by Neil Munro in the 1930s elevated the quirky little steamboats and Captain Para Handy in particular, to almost mythical status. Captain Handy and his Vital Spark have been the subject of three popular BBC television series, and puffers have starred in British films such as The Maggie.Puffers saw duty during World War I in servicing warships, and were used at Scapa Flow, in the Orkneys. England’s Ministry of Defense ordered puffer-style steamships for use in World War II. After the war, many of these ships, with the class name VIC, were used in the “coasting trade”, transporting essential goods to the islands and villages of Scotland’s west coast.The Crinan Canal, in Argyll, connects the towns of Ardrishaig and Crinan. Over its nine-mile length, the canal’s locks raise the water level 64 feet. Before the canal was built in 1801, ships bound from the Clyde to the west coast had to travel over 130 miles around the Mull of Kintyre. Today, the Crinan Canal is home to the VIC 32, one of the surviving, steam-powered puffers. Being “boat daft” was a parent’s phrase for the easily contracted mental state of a young boy living near the once-busy quays of the River Clyde in Glasgow. Today, being “boat daft” can be celebrated on the Crinan Canal, on an authentic puffer. Ron Young, Alhambra, CA, is a frequent participant at many Scottish Highland Games, and puffer enthusiast. Ron sums up his recent puffer experience this way: “As a former marine engineer and a fan of the Para Handy stories, it had always been my dream to hand-stoke the engine of a real puffer. My best moments during my week on the VIC 32 were spent with my feet in the engine room and my head in the clouds”

“Nollaig na mBan” or “Little Women’s Christmas” is an old custom that’s still celebrated by women all over Ireland. It goes back to the days when large families were the norm. Men never lifted a finger in the house to help, and were never expected to. If a man washed the dishes, he would be called an “auld woman” by other men. No full blooded Irish man was prepared to risk that!

But each year, after the Christmas holiday, tired women finally got a break – for one day, at least. On January 6th (the same day as the Epiphany), men would take over of the housework, offering women a chance to go out to relax with each other.

Never one to break with tradition, I returned to my hometown of Cork this year (from Dublin) to join my sisters and women friends to celebrate. As we sat overlooking the River Lee from Cork’s Metropole Hotel dining room, I thought, “We keep the tradition alive but, not in the same way our mothers did.”

Ladies On GuinnessDuring my childhood, I remember excited, shawled women hurrying to the local public house. On Little Women’s Christmas, they would inhabit this man’s domain without shame. Sitting in “the snug,” a small private room inside the front door, they would pool the few shillings they’d saved for the day. Then they would drink stout and dine on thick corned beef sandwiches provided by the publican. For the rest of the year, the only time respectable women would meet for a glass of stout would be during shopping hours, and then only because it was “good for iron in the blood.”

After an initial chat about the worries and cares of the old year, a pact would be made to leave them outside the door (something that was easier to do before the advent of cell phones). They’d be as free as the birds in the sky for the day – and well on into the evening. Late at night, with shawls dropped over their shoulders, words slurred and voices hoarse, they would always sing. In my memory, I still here them bellowing the unofficial Cork City anthem, The Banks of my own Lovely Lee:“Where they sported and played‘neath the green leafy shadeon the banks of my own lovely Lee.”

Some say this tradition is dying. But I was surprised to see how many women of all ages upheld it this year. Like my own sisters and friends, most women no longer gather in the snug of a public house. Wine and lunch has replaced the bottle of stout and corned beef sandwiches. And of course, today’s new man, no stranger to the kitchen, is home trying his hand at cooking and spending quality time with the children (or so they say).. We can’t stop progress, but it’s a pleasure to see Little Women’s Christmas survive.

Directory of Celtic ArtsFor Lessons:BodhranRon Barton: 928.774.7261 Fiddle & Irish DanceKari Barton: 928.600.1365Irish WhistleJohn McGregor 928.814.2480 FluteJacquie McGregor 928.814.2480For Performance: BagpipersJude McKenzie 928.556.3161The KnockaboutsJohn McGregor 928.814.2480