Search This Blog

Tuesday 3 November 2015

Kilt

The traditional garment of the Highland clansmen of Scotland is the kilt (a short, pleated skirt), which is suitable for climbing the rough hills.

The kilt was did not originate in Scotland. One of the earliest forms of dress, it appears on Bronze Age frescoes discovered in Knossos on Crete, and used to be worn by the ancient Egyptians. The kilt was also part of an Assyrian soldiers' uniform.

It was an Englishman Quaker Thomas Rawlinson, who introduced the kilt to Scotland. During the early eighteenth century Rawlinson ran an iron smelting works in woodland at Invergarry near Fort William and he wore Highland dress in the traditional manner from which he found it time consuming to disrobe. From this he developed a more easily detachable garment, which his workers soon adopted as they found it to be a more practical and comfortable garment. It was subsequently adopted by the Chief of Glengarry, Iain MacDonnell and many others soon followed.

Following the defeat of the Highland clans at the Battle of Culloden in the Second Jacobite Rebellion, the British parliament banned the wearing of the tartan kilt and other symbols of the Scottish Highlanders in the 1746 Dress Act. The Act was repealed 36 years later.

When George IV came to Edinburgh in 1822., the Scottish author Sir Walter Scott stage managed the event decking the royal occasion out with Highland trappings to create an event which revived the tartan tradition. The spectacular pageantry Scott concocted made tartans and kilts fashionable and turned them into symbols of national identity.



Female lacrosse players often wear kilts during games. They will typically wear compression shorts or spandex underneath. Kilts are popular among many levels of lacrosse, from youth leagues to college leagues.

The Pedi people, a tribe who live in the Limpopo Province of South Africa, wear Scottish kilts. Citing oral history, the use of kilts dates to 1879. They say that's when the tribe lost a battle because its warriors thought kilted Scots leading a British army were women and held their fire until realizing their mistake too late.

Domino's Pizza locations in Scotland have official, registered tartans for employees who would prefer to wear a kilt.

No comments:

Post a Comment