Highland Games in New Zealand

[OC Richard]

Excellent photos, thanks for sharing! It's always so very interesting to see how Games are done in various parts of the world.

Now the second photo was a puzzler to me... the fellow appears to be Knighting a... well just exactly what is that thing that he's Knighting?

I was very interested to see the female Highland Dancers wearing hats. I've certainly seen dancers wear hats in vintage photos, but not in person either here or in Scotland.

Well I just Googled "highland dancing scotland" under "images" and here are a large number of female dancers at various Games in Scotland, and no female dancers wearing hats

https://www.google.com/search?hl=en&...w=1920&bih=943

[Downunder Kilt]

O C Richard, the following web page maybe of some interest to you. In Australia and I believe New Zealand there are two distinct dancing organisations.
http://www.balmoralhighlanddancing.c...resources.html

[cessna152towser]

Thanks for the Flickr link. Great pics.
I always enjoy viewing photos of Highland games from around the world.
I am bemused by all the hats, not just on the dancers but also the clan marchers. Are the hats worn for protection against sunburn?

[Grouse Claw]

Sorry, brothers and sisters, I can't answer any of the technical questions about dancing and hats. As for sunburn, we're not all that worried about the rays, so it wouldn't be that. The Honorary Chieftain was given this great blade, and he stepped to the four corners of the official dais and touched each corner. I was in the dark about this too and though I'd better not giggle and spoil the moment for someone to whom the performance might have had some great significance. At the time I didn't ask, so the moment has passed. Maybe it was all made up. (I suspect so.) Still, it bestowed a moment of gravitas. The poor chap, a Government cabinet minister in charge of the earthquake recovery, has had to put up with such a lot of flak recently, so I hope he had some fun with it.