[12.5] Tartan

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6th April 98 was declared National Tartan Day in the US for the first time. This date was chosen because 6th April 1320 was the date of the signing of the Declaration of Arbroath (see [11.3]), which formed the basis for the US Declaration of Independence. See
http://www.tartanday.com/

History

Dwelly (Gaelic Dictionary - published 1901) writes (under breacan) Parti-coloured cloth was used by the Celts from earliest times, but the variety of colours in the breacan was greater or less according to the rank of the wearer. That of the ancient kings had seven colours, that of the druids six, and that of the nobles four. In the days of Martin the tartans seemed to be used to distinguish the inhabitants of different districts, and not the members of different families as at present. He expressely says that the inhabitants of the various islands were not all dressed alike, but that the setts and colours of the various tartans varied from isle to isle. As he does not mention the use of a special pattern by each family, it would appear that such a distinction is a modern one, and taken from the ancient custom of a tartan for each district, the family or clan originally most numerous in each part eventually adopting as their distinctive clan tartan the tartan of such district. Martin's information was not obtained on hearsay, he was born in Skye and reared in the midst of Highland customs.

MacLennan (Gaelic dictionary - published 1925) writes (under breacan) A parti-coloured dress, used by the Celts from the earliest times. "Breacan an fhe/ilidh", the belted plaid (consisting of twelve yards of tartan, worn round the waist, obliquely across the breast and over the left shoulder, and partly depending backwards). According to Keating it was the custom in ancient time to have one colour in the form of a slave, two in the dress of a peasant, three in the dress of a soldier or young lord, four in the dress of a brughaidh (land-holder), five in the dress of a district chief, six in the dress of an ollamh, and in that of a King and Queen.

This info about number of tartan colours and rank should perhaps be taken with a pinch of salt.

The use of tartan in Scotland predates the kilt as tartan appeared as a design before the small kilt was invented. The first recorded use of the modern kilt was in 1575, but the use of tartan predates this significantly.

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[12.5] Tartan

History

See also

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