Burns Night goes virtual: 'It might be even bigger this year'

Thousands join events in Scotland and far afield, and post-a-haggis service is in high demand

It's the night when Scots emerge from mid-winter hibernation, says the Burns scholar Pauline Mackay. On the poet's birthday, 25 January, or thereabouts, thousands of societies, clubs and groups of friends across Scotland and around the world gather to celebrate the life and work of the national bard Robert Burns.

The ritual elements of a Burns supper - addressing those gathered with his poem To a Haggis, completing several rounds of toasts and reading from the funny, sexy, radical diversity of his work - have remained constant since the first event was held by nine friends in 1801, five years after his death.