For immediate release
April 5th, 2008
Tartan Day will be celebrated with kilts on the Dragon Boat this Sunday April 6th.
This past week on
April 1st, 2008, the City of Vancouver passed a motion proclaiming April 6th
to be Tartan Day in Vancouver, to celebrate and recognize it's deep
Scottish roots and heritage. Vancouver's first Mayor in 1886, Malcolm
Alexander McLean was Scottish. Tartan
Day is meant to celebrate Canada's Scottish heritage and was first
proclaimed in Halifax in 1986, while BC proclaimed it in 1993.
There will be a 2pm Tartan Day
proclamation reading at Vancouver's Creekside Park at the Dragon Boat/
False Creek Ferry docks beside Science World, in Vancouver BC.
The proclamation will be read by Vancouver
City Councilor Raymond Louie, who is deputy mayor for the City of Vancouver for the month of April. Louie helped coordinate and second the
motion for City of Vancouver. Ron MacLeod, Chair V, of the SFU Scottish Studies program helped draft the motion.
Immediately following will be a “Tartan Day”
dragon boat paddle by the Gung Haggis Fat Choy dragon boat team. Some
paddlers will wear kilts, and a Scottish Flag will be flown from the
dragon boat. While many members of the team have Scottish or Celtic
ancestry, only rookie paddler Martin Carr was born in Scotland.
Councilor Louie has worn the tartan on previous occasions such as the
January 27th 2008 Gung Haggis Fat Choy dinner. He previously paddled
dragon boats for 4 years and helped to assist the first Taiwanese
Dragon Boat races in Vancouver in 2003.
The Gung Haggis Fat Choy
dragon boat team is coached and organized by Todd Wong, aka Toddish
McWong, creator of Gung Haggis Fat Choy Robbie Burns Chinese New Year
Dinner. This inter-cultural cross-fusion event has run for 11 years
and inspired a CBC television performance special and a Gung Haggis Fat
Choy Festival at Simon Fraser University.
For more information
contact Todd Wong
h: 604-987-7124
c: 778-846-7090
e: gunghaggis@yahoo.ca
www.gunghaggisfatchoy.com
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