
True Kilts: Debunking the Myths About Highlanders and Clan Tartans - pepys
https://www.collectorsweekly.com/articles/debunking-the-myths-about-kilts/
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psergeant

       > these tartan traditions are 
       > nearly 200 years old
    

These are pretty old by American standards, albeit not by Scottish.

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arethuza
We seem to be pretty good at re-inventing traditions for a bit of fun - _Up
Helly Aa_ in Shetland and the more recent Beltane fire festival in Edinburgh
being good examples.

[http://www.uphellyaa.org/](http://www.uphellyaa.org/)

[https://beltane.org/about/about-beltane/](https://beltane.org/about/about-
beltane/)

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psergeant
Scots in “will capitalise on credulous foreigners” shocker.

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rsynnott
In practice, it's actually quite common for parts of countries' culture to be
deliberately created. A lot of the US's patriotic customs only go back to the
early 20th century, for instance.

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stult
There's a post on the AskHistorians subreddit right now which discusses that
very phenomenon.
[https://www.reddit.com/r/AskHistorians/comments/7egibb/comme...](https://www.reddit.com/r/AskHistorians/comments/7egibb/comment/dq4z0o7)

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kiliantics
This just gave me a case of the Baader-Meinhof Phenomenon. I saw a reddit
comment on /r/AskHistorians just yesterday[0]. Many of these "traditions" in
Europe were fabricated, mostly in the late 19th century to foster a sense of
nationalist unity.

[https://www.reddit.com/r/AskHistorians/comments/5aocbl/is_th...](https://www.reddit.com/r/AskHistorians/comments/5aocbl/is_there_a_traditional_french_dress_how_about/d9i68ks/)

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JoeDaDude
And no true Scotsman will be caught outside doing construction work without
his Utilikilt! [1]

[1]
[http://www.utilikilts.com/accessories/switchback.html](http://www.utilikilts.com/accessories/switchback.html)

