Quote Originally Posted by Brett View Post
My paternal family came to Canada from Scotland 3 generations ago, my paternal Grandmothers family 1 generation ago and my and my maternal Grandfather 2 generations ago. Almost all of them wore kilts, admittedly more for military purposes than daily dress. Since as far as I can remember both my grandmothers had tartan items all over the house in many different forms simply for the love of it and as items passed down through the family.

I view the kilt and the love of tartans a family tradition. I view the love of many things scottish as a family tradition. So I don't really view the kilt as soley belonging to those living in Scotland. They can claim it if they like, but if they do, given the fairly brief history of kilts and "family tartans" I think they suffer the same romantic notions they accuse decendents in other parts of the world of.

The best I can offer is that I will do my best to not make a mockery of the kilt when I wear it. It's the reason I came to this site to learn as much as I can.

As boldhighlander said: "I don't really feel I need to justify my wearing it, just as I don't feel compelled to justify the wearing of any other article of clothing I wear (rather kilted or not)." I don't think anyone else should either, wether born in Scotland, 2,3,4 generations removed, or no connection at all other than an appreciation for the garb.

To be honest, after reading many of the articles here and other places regarding the history of kilts, I almost feel a little silly wearing a "clan tartan". It appears that many clan tartans were simply made up and really don't have much history of being worn by people with that surname. I would imagine that with my family coming to Canada in the mid 19th century they probably had never even heard of McCallum tartan and if they wore plaids, were likely the tartan of whatever local mill produced near the Isle of Mull.

Given the history of the modern kilt and clan tartans, if I'm playing make-believe, scots dress-up when I don my kilt and argyle jacket than so are a great many scots when they do the same. I'm really ok with that, I think playing dress-up is fun and brings out the kid in all of us wether born in Scotland or anywhere else in the world.
I agree! (although, I'm trying not to get dragged into the "argument" present here).

My mother inherited kilts from her grandmother, a native Scot, so, obviously, she was ok with her descendents, the diaspora, carrying on the traditions of her homeland. That's good enough for me!

Not all of the diaspora (Canada, Australia, NZ etc.) originally left Scotland because they wanted to...

Ok, fine... I've been dragged in...

Maybe only descendents of Sir Walter Scott should wear kilts!

Cheers!

Michael