For all my North Carolina kin (which is pretty all my relatives in the US) who didnt know that N.C. was the only place in the US where Scottish Gaelic was commonly spoken in the US up until the 20th century: In eighteenth century North Carolina, Highland Scottish settlers spoke Gaelic in church and at home. Presbyterian ministers conducted services in Gaelic, and young children recited hymns and religious songs in Gaelic. In the early nineteenth-century Fayetteville, a Gaelic press published books that a nearby bookstore sold. Gaelic speaking in North Carolina declined after the Civil War and virtually disappeared as a spoken language by the mid-twentieth century. Scottish surnames, however, still remain highly prevalent; some are Bain, Black, Campbell, Clark, Darrach, Gilchrist, MacDonald, MacDougall, MacKay, MacLean, MacLeod, MacNeill, MacPherson, MacAllister, Morrison, Patterson, Farquharson, Ross, Robertson and Stewart. In North Carolina, Scottish heritage is still practiced and celebrated. In the 1950s, a resurgence of the state’s Scottish culture began when Donald MacDonald and Hugh Morton started the Highland Games at Grandfather Mountain. Today, over thirty-five thousand people attend the Highland Games every July. Other Scottish celebrations include the Loch Norman games near Charlotte and the Highland Games at Red Springs.
Posted on: Mon, 17 Feb 2014 02:33:48 +0000
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