WELCOME TO AN ENTERTAINMENT SITE FOR SCOTTISH COUNTRY DANCERS!
Enjoy this curated selection of theme-related dances for celebrations and holidays, or find a dance associated with a special calendar day, or EVEN your own birthday!
The Penny Wedding, David Wilkie, 181
Feb 12
Lost Penny Day
A Penny Wedding
Other Scottish Country Dances for this Day
Today's Musings, History & Folklore
"A penny for your dancing thoughts?"
Don't lose your pennies today! Find one instead for good luck! Or for extra good luck, give your lucky penny to a wedding couple for good fortune!
For those who appreciate the capture of dancing moments in historical art, The Penny Wedding by Scottish artist David Wilkie is a well known genre painting from 1818. It depicts a traditional penny wedding, a custom in which the guests each paid a penny towards the cost of the celebrations. Wilkie had toured the Scottish Highlands the previous year but the painting was intentionally vague in its geography. The participants are dressed in old-fashioned Lowland costume, suggesting it was set at least a generation earlier than it was painted possibly as much as fifty years by one estimate.
Author Walter Scott also references penny weddings in several of his stories as they were often associated with good cheer, feasting, and dancing—sometimes to the disapproval of the church, which viewed the revelry as excessive! Take your chances with this lovely strathspey which gives ample opportunity to exhibit beautiful and elegant strides and circles! 🕺 💃 💒 💍 ❤️
A Penny Wedding
Penny weddings, a Scottish tradition, were joyous yet frugal celebrations where guests contributed food, drink, and entertainment rather than the couple shouldering the full expense. These gatherings, often lively affairs with music and dancing, provided an opportunity for community participation and goodwill. In literature, penny weddings serve as rich settings that highlight themes of social class, romance, and communal bonds. Sir Walter Scott, for instance, references them in his works to showcase Scottish customs and the blending of different social strata through merrymaking.
Sir Walter Scott references penny weddings in his novel The Fortunes of Nigel (1822). In Chapter 37, a character remarks, "Vera true, vera true—we'll have a' to pay, I doubt, less or mair—a sort of penny-wedding it will prove, where all men contribute to the young folk's maintenance, that they may not have just four bare legs in a bed together." This reflects the communal nature of such events, where guests contribute to support the newlyweds. Scott's inclusion of this tradition underscores his interest in Scottish customs and the social dynamics they entail.
For more Scottish genre paintings, click another famous painting of Scottish dancing at a wedding, David Allan's "A Highland Wedding", 1780!
Click the dance cribs or description below to link to a printable version of the dance!
