Every 25 January, the day before Australia has its national day (much to the annoyance of the Australian Aborigines), Scotland celebrates Burns Night. Despite its name, Burns Night has nothing to do with fire but rather a poet whose surname was Burns. Robert Burns whose birthday falls on 25 January is celebrated on Burns Night.
Born in 1759 (the same year that Arthur Guinness founded the brewery in his name), Robert had a good education despite his father's financial difficulty began writing songs at 15 to impress girls as well as poems about his farming life while working on the family farm with his brother. The success of his first book of poems deterred him from moving abroad when his farm failed and when the money from his book ran out, his friends got him a job as a customs officer which helped with financing his writing. His later work was inspired by the French Revolution of 1789 with those works being about equality for those regardless of social class. Robert's famous works include Auld Lang Sang (which is sung to ring in the New Year), To a Mouse, Address to a Haggis and Selkirk Grace. Sadly, Robert Burns never saw old age as he died of rheumatic fever after sleeping by the roadside during a downpour in 1796.
Burns Night is celebrated with Selkirk Grace opening the Burns Supper meal where haggis is brought in to bagpipes playing and Address to a Haggis is recited before the haggis is eaten. Many of Burns' poems are recited on Burns Night and can be closed out to Auld Lang Sang.