Dec. 13.] St. Barchan’s Day
Dec. 13.]
ST. BARCHAN’S DAY.
Scotland
His day is still celebrated at Kilbarchan by a fair, held on the 1st of December, Old Style, (13th December, New Style.) This rustic festival is alluded to in the Laird of Beltrees’ poem on the life and death of the famous piper of Kilbarchan, Habbie Simpson:
“Sae kindly to his neighbour’s niest,
At Beltane and St. Barchan’s feast.
He blew and then held up his breist,
As he were wead;
But now we needna him arreist,
For now he’s deid!”
Chambers’s Pop. Rhymes of Scotland, 1870, p. 391.