Seachdain na Gàidhlig: Celebrating Gaelic Culture

Seachdain na Gàidhlig? What’s that?

Seachdain na Gàidhlig is World Gaelic Week, a celebration in Scotland and beyond, to honor, celebrate, and encourage people to enjoy and connect with Gaelic language and culture.

In 2023, it happens from 20 through 26 February.

gaelic english sign scotland Seachdain na Gàidhlig

This year marks the second time this celebration of the Gaelic language and culture of Scotland has been held.

In addition to in person events in Scotland there will be lots going on online too, so you may join in Seachdain na Gàidhlig wherever you are in the world.

lighthouse Scotland Seachdain na Gàidhlig

There are continuing ways to explore Gaelic language and to explore Scotland through Gaelic, too. If you are reading this outwith Seachdain na Gàidhlig itself, have no worries. there’s much to enjoy all year round, in person and online as well. More about that below.

Maybe you’ve been introduced to Gaelic through hearing it spoken in the television series Outlander or reading it in the Outlander series of books.

Perhaps you enjoyed hearing it spoken and sung in the Disney Pixar film Brave.

Could be you’ve seen Gaelic on road signs or in museum descriptions in Scotland, or heard someone speaking it in the street as you traveled in Scotland.

Maybe you’ve been drawn to the sound of Gaelic song including the lyrical narrative songs of Julie Fowlis, the dance of high energy Gaelic song from the band Manran, and the creative takes on tradition from the members Breabach.

Seachdain na Gàidhlig is a good time to explore further and to connect with others online and in person to learn about Gaelic speakers, the Gaelic language, and Gaelic culture in Scotland and across the world.

Seachdain na Gàidhlig events make welcoming places to do whether you have any of the language yourself or not.

Across Scotland, there will be sporting events, talks, teas, cooking classes, children’s events, music sessions and concerts, circus performances and more for the celebration and sharing of Gaelic language and culture.

There will be among other things a showcase for how Harris tweed is made in the Western Isles, singing workshops on the Isle of Skye, and performances for all ages from Paisley Community Circus.

Harris tweed Scotland Seachdain na Gàidhlig

The Glasgow Gaels Shinty Club and Partick Thistle are among those who will join in from the sports side, and there are ranges of Seachdain na Gàidhlig events of many sorts planned in Arran, Mull, Harris, Barra, Glasgow, Edinburgh, Perth, Stirling, and other locations across Scotland as well.

In Fort William there will be day long events on the Saturday of the week, leading up to a concert by top class international Gaelic musicians, all of whom call the area around Fort William home when not off touring. Among those sharing their music will be Mary Ann Kennedy, Ewen Henderson, and Ingrid Henderson.

All this points up what Gaelic musician and broadcaster Joy Dunlop, director of World Gaelic Week, says:

“This week celebrates everything about Gaelic – the language, the culture, the arts, music and heritage.”

World Gaelic WeekSeachdain na Gàidhlig launch

A bit of backstory: there was a time when Gaelic was the day to day language in the Highlands and Island and well understood in other parts of the country as well.

Then, after Culloden, there was a time when it was forbidden –outlawed — to speak the language.

At the time of the Highland Clearances, many Gaelic speakers left Scotland, too. They carried Gaelic culture and language to Australia, New Zealand, and Nova Scotia, in Atlantic Canada, among other places.

Though laws faded, it is still well within living memory of many that speaking Gaelic was looked down on and that people were at times prohibited from and punished for speaking Gaelic in schools and workplaces.

Gaelic is a vital part of the landscape, history, and culture of Scotland, though.
In varied ways, through song and story and quiet teaching between family and friends, Gaelic stayed alive, and has in recent decades seen a resurgence of interest, respect, and flourishing.

Seachdain na Gàidhlig poster Scotland Gaelic

How can you yet involved, during Seachdain na Gàidhlig and beyond?

There is a calendar of events at the Seachdain na Gàidhlig web page.

Also, you may keep up with online and in person events by following Seachdain na Gàidhlig on your choice of social media; they maintain many active presences online.

Event participants are being encouraged to share their stories too, with the hashtag #SeachdainNaGàidhlig. Look for their stories.

You will want to look for Hands Up for Trad online and on social media also. This the home base arts organization for Seachdain na Gàidhlig, as well as for other events important to Scottish culture, including the Scots Language Awards and the Scots Trad Music Awards.

Want to learn, hear, or improve Gaelic? There are good ways to do this online. You may access these resources wherever you are in the world, and year round as well.

Speak Gaelic is a series of programs available on television in Scotland and online across the world. The presenters (the aforementioned Joy Dunlop is one of them) offer a conversational approach, using both Gaelic and English as they bring in grammar as well as vocabulary, pronunciation, and cadence.

They explore places and lifeways in Scotland along the way of helping you with the language, too. Speak Gaelic is available in video and as podcast. The presenters often post about the lessons on social media too.

DuoLingo offers a Scottish Gaelic course. As with Speak Gaelic, there is no cost for this. These are bite sized lessons that take only a few minutes to complete.

Side note: DuoLingo has Irish languages lessons as well. A question that often arises: are Gaelic in Scotland and Irish Gaelic in Ireland the same language? No. They diverged four centuries or so ago. They are related, but not the same.

Another source for short lessons is Beag air Bheag, Little by Little, a project of BBC’s Gaelic language station Radio nan Gaidheal, which uses conversation and instruction in short audio lessons to help you learn.

Radio nan Gaidheal itself is a good resource, as it is available to listen on line live, and there are archives of programs too. Even if you do not have much Gaelic it will get you used to cadences of the language, and there are music programs that may provide easy access.

You will sometimes find Gaelic music on the BBC’s English language component for Scotland BBC Radio Scotland, as well.

You will also want to keep an eye out in autumn for events and world wide broadcasts of The Royal National Mod, where there are concerts, poetry readings, and many sorts of competitions and celebrations of Gaelic culture.

Coming a bit sooner than that, in May, the people of Nova Scotia will celebrate Gaelic month with online and in person events, too.

Listening to and perhaps learning a bit of Gaelic will help your appreciation and understanding of Scotland and its diaspora, whether you are planning, dreaming, or remembering travel in those places.

Seachdain na Gàidhlig is a fine time to begin and continue those journeys.

Photograph of Seachdain na Gàidhlig/World Gaelic Week director Joy Dunlop and Paisley Community Circus performers by Julie Howden

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