Wearing your kilt to other cultural events

[RowdyRed]

In the upcoming months, Texas has quite a few festivals featuring other cultures. Example: WestFest (Czech polka festival), Oktoberfest (German), Greek Food Festival...you get the idea.

Question:
Would it be disrespectful to wear your kilt to these events? (Before you answer, consider how you would feel if a troupe of lederhosen-clad revelers showed up at a Highland event).

[Mr. MacDougall]

As long as the kilted behaved with respect, I don't think it would be disrespectful. I wouldn't mind if guys in Lederhosen showed up at the local highland games, as long as they were respectful.

[RowdyRed]

Okay, but what is 'respectful'?

Should the kilted NOT do the "Chicken Dance" if the spirit so moves them?

[Ayin McFye]

Okay, but what is 'respectful'?

Should the kilted NOT do the "Chicken Dance" if the spirit so moves them?

I think if everyone else is doing the chicken dance you should be ok. Your ancestors might roll over in their graves, but as long as your having fun.

[McMurdo]

Well that is an interesting question, as someone who wears a kilt on a daily basis, as clothing and not a costume, I would not, and do not have a problem wearing my kilt anywhere that I go. Does it bother some people, yes, do their prejudges effect me, if I allow them to. I have got to the point in my life where I can dress myself, and I am also grown up enough to not let what others wear bother me. I wish others would see it that way.

No matter where I go people of other cultures have had positive things to say about my kilt wearing with some of them it is because they are proud to wear the "costume" of their heritage and can therefore relate.

Today as I was going into the mall I heard over my shoulder in a Jamaican accent "Hello Mr. Stewart." So I said back "How did you know?" I stopped we talked for a bit and I told him that while I am not a Stewart my mother is and while this is not the Stewart tartan I do have a Stewart tartan at home, we talked about the importance of heritage and we both learned something it was all in all an enjoyable exchange, but only because we both went into it with open minds.

[Knocko]

I don't see what the problem would be either. I was recently in town, stopped at a gas station, and a Indian woman asked if there was an event. I said that there wasn't. She asked if I was Scottish and I replied that I was...and she commended me on sticking to my roots. She commented on how liberating it was to wear 'cultural garb' no matter where you go, so that one may educate someone else on the clothing of their country.

I don't have a problem with other cultures clothing and I wouldn't mind if they showed up to a highland event in their country's traditional clothing. I expect the same in return.

[ardchoille]

I don't think it would be disrespectful to show up in a kilt any more than it would be disrespectful to show up in jeans. A kilt is the garment of my ancestors and I wear it with pride everywhere I go.

[Thebes]

In Taos, NM, I did get a rather nasty look from a hispanic woman when I wore my UK near the Fiesta, which is a big cultural event with the old hispanic families here. That was just one person though and the only time I felt I might be offending someone, certainly no one else seemed upset.

[Mr. MacDougall]

At the recent release party for Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, there were many people dressed in costumes from the Harry Potter mileu... I, myself, was wearing Ravenclaw robes, along with a tie in house colors. This may be seen as cultural clothing, since it was specific to the geek sub-culture involved in the Harry Potter books.

There were also two young men, probably somewhat drunk, who had put on any clothes they could find which, in their minds, looked stupid. They wandered around, putting on bad, fake English accents, asking if people knew the way back to the shire, where Gandalf was, and so on.

In my book, that's disrespectful. Going to Oktoberfest in a kilt, and participating in the German events, is not.

[Bryan]

Should the kilted NOT do the "Chicken Dance" if the spirit so moves them?

As my mother is actually from Germany, I would like to formally apologize for all the Germanic peoples for inflicting the Chicken Dance on the rest of the world.