weird tartans...

[Father Bill]

This may not help, my very personal and traditional view that is not a commonly held view here on this website.I honestly think that we on this website, worry too much about tartans. For me and many in the Highlands here in Scotland, we wear the family tartan and care little about what other tartans look like, even our own tartan is not given much thought, it is what it is. Besides, few in Scotland want to wear tartans of other Clans or other non Clan patterns. YES! We could wear other Clan tartans that we have a connections to, but we choose not to.

Why this very obvious and not inexpensive need for some of those outwith these shores to collect assorted tartans in kilt form is a mystery to many of us and this rather unnecessary expense is lost to most of us over here.

Our culture probably has much to do with this , which seemingly and not surprisingly, is watered down by the large distances and inevitable dilution of other cultures. Nevertheless, there is really much to recommend the traditional thinking here. We prefer to concentrate on how the kilt, our kilt, is worn rather than worrying about patterns, combinations and shades of colours and that is made so much easier with the one tartan.

On the other hand, I suppose those in the weaving and kilt construction industry must be rubbing their hands with glee at the New World’s seemingly endless need to spend their money unnecessarily. But still, each to their own.

I've always seen tartan as a name tag. Why would anyone want to wear someone else's name unless it was part of a uniform?