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Bee Day
May 20
Other Scottish Country Dances for this Day
Today's Musings, History & Folklore
“How doth the little busy bee
Improve each shining hour,
And gather honey all the day
From every opening flower!”
~Isaac Watts, 1715, "How Doth the Little Busy Bee"
A perrenial favourite for busy dancers and busy bees, practice your kilt waggling and bee waggle to navigate this very fun 4 couple John Drewry jig and make sure you reel in the correct direction!
Drewry writes:
Maggieknockater is a hamlet two miles North-east of Craigellachie. In a field there beside the road is a large sign – Maggieknockater Apiary – hence the title of this dance. Some years later, John noted that the apiary had closed and the sign had been removed.
Bees figure prominently in many places as mascots, folklore, ritual, and even have special residence near the Scottish Parliament, situated in the Member’s Garden. Here the bees have good access to all the foliage across Holyrood Park and Arthur’s Seat, as well as the plants and flowers within the Parliament’s Gardens and wild flower meadows.
These bees are kept by longtime beekeepers Hood's Honey Bees, and their beeswax has been used to fill the Great Seal of Scotland and seal every act of the Scottish Parliament since its inception – over 200 in number!
Inspired to bring a recipe to accompany your next dance? See the included recipe for honeycake with whisky and Earl Grey flavouring. Buzz! Buzz! 💛 💛 💛 🌼 🍯 🐝 🐝 🐝
The Bees of Maggieknockater
Honey bees represent only a small fraction of the roughly 20,000 known species of bees. Some other types of related bees produce and store honey, but only members of the genus Apis are true honey bees.
Maggieknockater (Magh an Fhucadair in Scottish Gaelic) is a hamlet on the A95 road between Craigellachie and Mulben in Scotland in the Moray council area, in the former county of Banffshire.
Until the early 1970s there was large apiary which was well known in the region and has lived on in this Scottish country dance. The meaning of Maggieknockater is "field of the fuller" or "plain of the hilly ridge" (and has nothing to do with a woman called Maggie).
Depictions of humans collecting honey from wild bees date to 15,000 years ago. Simple hives and smoke were used and honey was stored in jars, some of which were found in the tombs of pharaohs such as Tutankhamun.
It wasn't until the 18th century that European understanding of the colonies and biology of bees allowed the construction of the moveable comb hive so that honey could be harvested without destroying the entire colony.
For an interesting honey cake recipe with whisky and an Earl Grey tea flavouring, click the honey cake.
And for the performance of this dance by the Singapore St Andrew's Society Mixed Team, at the Singapore St. Andrew's Ball, 2011, click the video below.
Click the dance cribs or description below to link to a printable version of the dance!
