KILTS, CLANS, SCOTS : Fest Brings Highland Fun to the Fore

Next to Name That Side Dish, the most common game at most family reunions must be one-upsmanship.

Your cousin announces his big raise; you counter with news of your promotion. He crows about his girls’ GPAs; you let loose with your son’s science fair award. Sweating, he blurts his latest golf score, while you, ah, deftly change the subject.

The games being played at this weekend’s annual Scottish Festival make this stuff seem wimpy by comparison. Instead of empty chatter, these clan members prove themselves as their ancestors did centuries ago: through displays of grace, dexterity and physical strength. The festival, open to the public, begins with a kilted golf tournament on Friday at the Costa Mesa Country Club and continues Saturday and Sunday at the Orange County Fairgrounds in Costa Mesa.

Sponsored by the United Scottish Society of Southern California, the Scottish Festival is inspired by the original Highland Games in Scotland, in which clan members would compete in rigorous athletics to demonstrate their strength and ability and establish their clan’s dominance.

Many of the festival’s athletic events are not only exciting to watch, they are also mini history lessons in Scottish culture, said event spokeswoman Doreen Murphy. For example, the caber toss, in which men attempt to heave a telephone pole-sized log end over end, hearkens back to ancient warfare methods.

The fixed hammer throw, in which competitors throw a 16- or 22-pound hammer from a standing position, is derived from a game once played by early Scots working in granite quarries, and the farmer’s walk, in which competitors traverse a course with a 50-pound weight in each hand, recalls the rigors of Scottish farm life. Festival guides with histories on each event are available at the entrance, Murphy said.

Children’s competitions will be held both days, but there are no heavy objects involved here. Events, open to ages 6 to 15, include foot races, wheelbarrow races and pillow fights (“whoever is left standing is the winner,” Murphy said, laughing).

Traditional Scottish food and drink will be sold, and visitors can also stop by a vendors’ area to pick up a ready-made kilt or be measured for a custom model by a San Francisco tailor. A clan walk with booths representing more than 100 Scottish clans will allow visitors to trace their ancestry with the help of volunteers dressed in family tartans.

The kilted golf tournament is new to this year’s event. Although some historians believe golf originated in Holland, it was the Scots who made it popular. So popular, in fact, that in 1457 the Scottish Parliament, reportedly miffed over the sport’s lure for young people, passed an ordinance that “golf be utterly cryit doun and nocht usit,” according to the 1993 Information Please Almanac. That suggestion has been happily ignored by people in loud pants (or kilts, for that matter) for centuries since. The tournament begins at 11 a.m. and is open to all ages; advance registration and kilts are required.

Also new to this year’s festival are Sunday’s arm-wrestling competitions hosted by the National Arm Wrestling Assn. According to association member Ed Levitt, the competitions are open to men and women; young children are discouraged from participating, but teen-agers are welcome (a parent’s signature is required for competitors under age 18). In the event, divided by weight categories, festival-goers can compete against more seasoned arm-wrestlers for cash and prizes. Weigh-in is at 9 a.m., competition at noon.

Although arm-wrestling is not strictly a Scottish sport, Levitt says it ties in with the Highland tradition because of its emphasis on strength and strategy. Besides, he added, a little arm-wrestling can go a long way toward boosting family pride.

“It’s a sport that can be intergenerational,” he noted. “It was only after I beat my dad at it that I knew that I was good.”

Highland dancing and Scottish country dancing will also be featured both days. Male and female dancers ranging from 6 years of age to senior citizens will compete in such dances as the Scottish Lilt, the Highland Fling, and the Gillie Calum, originally a men’s victory dance which incorporated crossed swords laid on the ground.

“In olden days, whoever danced the longest and fastest without cutting up their feet was the winner, the chieftain of the clan who ruled until the next battle,” Murphy explained. “It was a proof of a man’s prowess.”

In any event, it is the pipes and drums, Murphy said, that are the festival’s biggest draw.

“When the bands are in the main arena, the rest of the place might as well be empty,” Murphy said. “It’s so spectacular and colorful, it just makes the hair stand up on the back of your neck.” Individual pipers and drummers will compete in the mornings, bands will compete in the afternoons, and the mass pipe bands, 17 in all, will appear in the festival’s opening and closing ceremonies both days.

But if all this pageantry leaves you cold, Murphy offers one last carrot, particularly to those of the female persuasion: Come for the kilts.

“To me, the kilt is one article of men’s clothing that no man looks bad in, no matter what his figure,” Murphy said. “When a man puts on a kilt, he looks handsome, even if he doesn’t have good legs.”

* What: 61st Annual Scottish Festival.

* When: Saturday and Sunday, May 29 and 30, from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m.

* Where: Orange County Fairgrounds, 88 Fair Drive, Costa Mesa.

* Whereabouts: From the San Diego (405) Freeway, exit at Fairview Road and drive south. Turn left on Arlington Drive. Parking is free; shuttles are available.

* Wherewithal: Admission $1 to $10; children ages 3 and under get in free.

* Where to call: (310) 370-9887