Generation to Generation

[Dulcius ex Asperis]

This thread gives voice to one of the things that brings me back to XMTS. Namely that I do not have any direct proof of anyone in my family wearing the kilt. No one living remembers back far enough, or knows a story from someone who does, to recall anyone wearing it. Having come from Scotland I presume that one of my forebears did wear the kilt. But the memory of it has entirely disappeared in my family. In a sense I feel the need to be "adopted" as it were by men who did grow up with kilts about them. This connects to my own sense of what it means to "wear the kilt traditionally", i.e., to wear it traditionally is simply to wear it as it has been passed down to you. There will be different traditions, then, but they all come from somewhere organically and represent an actual practice of wearing the kilt that is connected to how it was worn one, two, eight, whatever, centuries ago--even if it is not identical to any of those centuries. The tradition of kilt wearing for me is somewhat artificial as I really haven't received anything handed down. This forum is probably the best surrogate available given my circumstances. I would much prefer to take up more of an organically received way of wearing the kilt than to make it up as I go, even if it is no longer through my own family. Better some one else's than none at all.

[DWFII]

This thread gives voice to one of the things that brings me back to XMTS. Namely that I do not have any direct proof of anyone in my family wearing the kilt. No one living remembers back far enough, or knows a story from someone who does, to recall anyone wearing it. Having come from Scotland I presume that one of my forebears did wear the kilt. But the memory of it has entirely disappeared in my family. In a sense I feel the need to be "adopted" as it were by men who did grow up with kilts about them. This connects to my own sense of what it means to "wear the kilt traditionally", i.e., to wear it traditionally is simply to wear it as it has been passed down to you. There will be different traditions, then, but they all come from somewhere organically and represent an actual practice of wearing the kilt that is connected to how it was worn one, two, eight, whatever, centuries ago--even if it is not identical to any of those centuries. The tradition of kilt wearing for me is somewhat artificial as I really haven't received anything handed down. This forum is probably the best surrogate available given my circumstances. I would much prefer to take up more of an organically received way of wearing the kilt than to make it up as I go, even if it is no longer through my own family. Better some one else's than none at all.

Well said!

I am in similar straits. My Scots side left for Ireland after Bannockburn. But not only were they an important clan in Argyl before that (the oldest stone castle still standing in Scotland--castle Sween on Loch Sween--was built by them) but they became an important family/clan in Ireland.

Beyond that the quandary I faced was what tartan to wear if I wanted to only wear the family tartan as Jock suggests is proper in Scotland today?

My family left before kilts evolved and certainly before tartans got assigned to clans or vice versa.

Perhaps that's why I too prefer a more Traditional approach because I have to respect the origins and spirit of the kilt...or have no reason to wear it at all.