At a time of year when the weather is often at its worst, and Christmas and new year festivities already feel like a distant memory, a Burns Night supper can cheer things up no end.

You can mark Burns Night (25th January) with a sumptuous banquet, or just raise a glass and enjoy a few poems around the kitchen table with a few family and friends. However you do it, you will be taking part in a tradition that goes back over two and a half centuries.

The tradition of the Burns Night Supper began in 1801, when nine men who had known Robert Burns gathered, five years after his death, to remember the life and works of ‘Scotland’s national poet’ and the writer of Auld Lang Syne.

The evening was centred around a haggis and included singing and reciting of the writer’s works, and a toast to his memory.

The men may not have realised it at the time, but they had spawned a phenomenon which would spread all over the world.

Traditionally, a grace is recited, then guests stand as the haggis is brought in on a silver platter.

The poem To a Haggis should be read out, and its reader should start to cut the dish where mentioned in the poem. They should raise it in triumph on the final line, and the haggis should be toasted.

After the meal, songs and poems by Burns should follow. There should also be a speech celebrating the great Scotsman’s life and works (the Immortal Memory) and a Toast to the Lassies.

The master of ceremonies thanks everyone who has contributed at the end of the evening.

Burns Night Supper Menu

Starter

Traditional cock-a-leekie soup.

Main course

Haggis doused in whisky, neeps and tatties (swede and potatoes)

Sweet

Clootie Dumpling or Typsy Laird (a Scottish sherry trifle).

When it comes to party planning for a Burns Night supper, party invitations are key.

At Putty Print, you can customise and order your invites online, and all orders are dispatched the same day when ordered before 10am.

So make this 25th January an extra special Burns Night – and invite your guests in style!