WELCOME TO An Entertainment Site for Scottish Country Dancers - Enjoy the curated selection of theme-related dances for celebrations and holidays, or find a dance associated with a special calendar day, or EVEN your own birthday!
Hot Buttered Rum
Hot Buttered Rum Day
Jan 17
Other Scottish Country Dances for this Day
Today's Musings, History & Folklore
"Eat butter first, and eat it last, and live till a hundred years be past."
~ Old Dutch proverb
Butter’s reputation as a healthful food may fluctuate, but most agree, “butter makes everything taste better"! Celebrate butter's buttery goodness with this butter-churning reel, with its paddle-turning "teapot" and other mixing figures! It's hard to believe, but butter eating was once considered barbarous!
Julius Caesar, during his visit to conquered Britain, was reportedly appalled by the northerners’ heavy consumption of milk. Strabo, the Roman philosopher, geographer, and historian, dismissed the Celts as “milk-swilling barbarians.” To the Romans, butter was primarily an ointment for burns, not a food source. The Greek comic poet Anaxandrides even used “butter-eaters” as an insult to describe the Thracians. As for me, pass the butter (and maybe a little rum) and let's dance! 🧈 🧈 🧈 🐄
The Butter Churn
Evidence for the use of butter dates back as early as 2000 BC, and there is even mention of it in biblical works.
In the Mediterranean climate, unclarified butter spoils quickly - unlike cheese, it is not a practical method of preserving the nutrients of milk. The ancient Greeks and Romans seemed to have considered butter a food fit more for the northern barbarians. A play by the Greek comic poet Anaxandrides refers to Thracians as boutyrophagoi, "butter-eaters". In his Natural History, Pliny the Elder calls butter "the most delicate of food among barbarous nations", and goes on to describe its medicinal properties.
In the European tradition, the butter churn was primarily a device used by women, and the churning of butter was an essential responsibility along with other household chores.
In earlier traditions of butter making, nomadic cultures placed milk in skin bags and produced butter either by shaking the bag manually, or possibly by attaching the bag to a pack animal, and producing butter simply through the movement of the animal.
For a classic hot buttered rum, click "The Butterchurn" by Valentine Cameron Prinsep (1838-1904) and scroll down for a video of the dance performed by the Tay Dancers.
Click the dance cribs or description below to link to a printable version of the dance!
