Ceilidh Time

Our family has long enjoyed family dance parties which typically involve a lot of 80’s music and Adam doing his patented fast dance technique. We took it a step further recently when we all went to a Scottish Ceilidh, a dinner and dance held at our church. While we may have gone just to support the fundraiser, we all had a great time and came back with a spring in our step to say the least.

As soon as we walked into the dance hall, held on the grounds of St. Stephen’s College in Stanley, everyone’s eyes widened. I have been reading the Harry Potter series to the kids and the dance hall, an old gymnasium with dusty sports banners hanging from the rafters, looked just like Hogwarts to them and to me. With some lively gaelic folk music being played, everyone was soon out on the dance floor, trying to learn the moves of the dance. Someone shouted out the appropriate steps and it was fairly easy for even our seven years old to soon catch on. Some dances were harder than others but all involved swinging, stomping and laughing.

The ceildh is not just about dance. More of a social gathering, our event also included a curry dinner. The kids (we brought a few friends too) all tried everything. No one quite knew why we were eating curry but we finally thought it was a British Empire thing. I didn’t feel like explaining haggis to them either.

Dances carried on into the night. Adam insisted on dancing with all the fourth grade girls that we brought with us. The dancing stopped for awhile when the local Red Tartan marching band came to play. Everyone stopped in their tracks and just listened. Way past the kids’ bedtimes, we had to sneak out at this juncture. With the weather unseasonably cool and the bagpipe music hanging in the air, we climbed into our car to drive home. It was definitely yet another only in Hong Kong type of moments.