Author: Dorothy McLean
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Farewell to September
Michaelmas marks both the end of summer and the early days of autumn. (This year in Scotland the Autumn Equinox took place at exactly 1:05 BST on September 23..) The nights, as Mr McLean will inevitably say, are fair drawing in. We have eaten most of the apples on our early-bearing tree. However, all is…
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Happy Michaelmas 2026!
“Saint Michael is kind to strangers” is the motto of the nearby town of Linlithgow, and the same sentiment applies to the ladies and gentlemen of Mrs McLean’s Waltzing Party. As always, I was delighted to see our veteran dancers sweeping up the newcomers into the fun. But Generation Z, you’re going to be the…
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25 hours to go!
I have left work, and it is time to collect up all the crockery and wineglasses, to buy the last supplies, and to work out which shoes to wear tomorrow.. 25 hours to go! Everyone, now is the time to buy your tickets! If a bank transfer is beyond your ken, I will take cash.…
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A Record of Real Life
Grateful thanks to St. Anthony of Padua, or whomever inspired a kind person on the 26 Bus to hand my purple dance notebook to the driver. I felt excruciating loss for a few hours on Sunday evening and then an amazed burst of joy when I received word from Lothian Busses that they had my…
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Community Centred
A young relative spent the end of her summer holidays with her uncle and me in Scotland. Naturally we took her along with us to the Traditional Latin Mass and then to the Tea-and-Coffee-Hour in the parish rooms. I introduced her here and there, and she was amused and pleased to see the numerous infants…
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The Golden Links of Tradition
Someone recently told me her family had no traditions. Further conversation revealed that this was not strictly true for traditional foods still appear on the table at Christmas and annual gifts are offered in the name of a saint. “That’s a tradition,” I said. “What do you think it’s about?” “Superstition?” suggested my interlocutor. “I…
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A Whole Day of Traddery
It doesn’t always happen, but sometimes one traditional Catholic priest or another appears at our Michaelmas Dance, our Eastertide Dance, or a simple Waltzing Party. He doesn’t dance. Instead he accepts a glass of wine, or eats a pice of cake, or nibbles a biscuit. Sometimes he has an errand to run, a newcomer to…
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Making Michaelmas Memorable
On Sunday someone told me how much she enjoys our dances for Catholics who love the Traditional Latin Mass (and our friends). She declared that they are unique, and I can think of several reasons why that might be. First, they are the biggest social occasions (south of the Forth Bridge, north of the Border)…
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Our Fourth Annual Michaelmas Dance
There we have it! Mrs McLean’s Waltzing Party will be celebrating our Fourth Michaelmas Dance in September. In perhaps another six years, we can claim that it is not just traditional but a tradition. As I am now going to spend the next month trumpeting its delights abroad, I hope my knees improve to such…
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Hilaire Belloc on Dancing
On June 6, 1901, the great Catholic apologist Hilaire Belloc (1870 – 1953) went on a walking pilgrimage to Rome. His resulting travelogue The Path to Rome, written in a stream-of-consciousness style, was published in 1902. In this, his most acclaimed work, Belloc mentions dancing as something everyone should do. In fact, he joked that…