Burns Club Atlanta Burns Club of Atlanta is fifty-third in seniority among several hundred organizations recognized by the Scottish-based World Burns Federation. Officially organized on January 25, 1896, the centennial year of Robert Burns’ birth, the Burns Club of Atlanta is quite possibly the city’s oldest surviving cultural and literary society. As early as the 1870s, Burns admirers in Atlanta had been meeting in private homes and hotels to celebrate the birthday of the Scottish poet. Shortly after the club’s formation, plans were made to construct for a clubhouse an exact replica of Robert Burns' birthplace in Alloway, Ayrshire, Scotland. Situated in the
Culture of the United Kingdom and much celebrated holiday in Scotland and Ireland on the night of 31 October. The name "Halloween" is first attested in the 16th century as a Scottish shortening of the fuller "All-Hallows-Even", and according to some historians has its roots in the Gaelic festival Samhain, when the Gaels believed the border between this world and the otherworld became thin, and the dead would revisit the mortal world. In 1780, Dumfries poet John Mayne makes note of pranks at Halloween; ""What fearfu' pranks ensue!"", as well as the supernatural associated with the night, ""Bogies"" (ghosts). Robert Burns' 1785 poem "Halloween" is