Heritage, Made Personal at Flora MacDonald Day

The excitement that rolls around each year with Flora MacDonald Day is difficult to match. Well-acquainted veterans of the school know it as a day filled with Scottish heritage celebrated in a variety of ways – a little different every year, but no less anticipation for it. For new students, the stories passed on by peers build it into a highlight of the year before they experience it themselves.

The day always opens the same way. A parade around Shore Road, led by the College Pipe Band and a mix of the Girls' School's own instrumentalists. Students walk alongside their buddies draped in tartan the colour of their school House.

The formal assembly followed, opening with an address from Principal Marianne Duston and closing with a characteristically enigmatic blessing from Chaplain Rev Reuben Hardie, delivered in his best Scottish accent. Year 8 student Mila Henison took the podium to present about a recent trip to her family's home in Scotland, and a dramatized retelling of Bonnie Prince Charlie and Flora MacDonald reminded the girls of the courage that gives the day its name.

Released from the assembly with their Houses, the girls took on a full programme of activities across the school. Highland games and inflatable obstacle courses on the field, Highland dancing in the gymnasium, a tug-of-war on the turf, and a steady supply of shortbread carried the girls through to the end of the day.

It is this kind of excitement that matters when the day in question is rooted in the school's heritage. Like a birthday, it comes round each year and invites a moment to take stock – of where the school has come from, and what it continues to carry forward. Through the passing down of stories, parading with pride, and the infusion of culture into music, games, dance, and food, Flora MacDonald Day lifts the past out of a history book and turns it into something the girls can carry with them.