Kirkin o' the Tartan

For this afternoon's run, I chose a route that took me by the corner of Massachusetts and Wisconsin Avenues NW, which is to say past National Cathedral. As I headed up Wisconsin toward Macomb, it seemed to me that a woman turning into the driveway of the cathedral was dawdling. Once she was past and I was crossing the drive, I had a look to the right and saw a man leading two small boys, probably about five and about nine, each wearing a blue blazer and a kilt with a predominantly red pattern. It seemed to me that perhaps the woman had slowed because she couldn't believe what she was seeing.

Then, as I was about halfway to the other end of the driveway, the bagpipes started. This seemed to deserve a closer look, so I cut back on the walk. For one of my uncorrected vision, there wasn't much to see but people standing near some pipers. However, as I turned back to Wisconsin, there came a man of middle age wearing jacket, tie, and blue-green kilt. I asked him, and he explained that this was the Kirkin o' the Tartan, a ceremony that raises money for Scottish-American scholarships. (I had to look this up when I got home, for it sounded as if he said "Carkin".)

It seemed to me that the the Saint Andrews Society of Washington, DC, might more appropriately have set the Kirkin at the National Presbyterian Church, something less than a mile farther out toward the Maryland line, than at the Anglican cathedral. But I see that a reception followed, and the cathedral has much more in the way of restaurants nearby.