The biggest edition of Seachdain na Gaidhlig, World Gaelic Week, has kicked off with more than 200 events planned across Scotland and around the world. The fifth annual celebration of one of Scotland’s official languages is up 15 per cent on last year, with events ranging from bagpiping and folk music to step dance, nature walks, and storytelling across 24 local authority areas. More than 40,000 attendees are expected over the week.
The theme this year is Use it or Lose it, Cleachd i no Caill i, championing the vitality of Gaelic as a living language rather than a museum piece. Daily language classes will reach more than 7,000 school children, with 357 classes signed up for online assemblies and sessions.
Joy Dunlop, director of Seachdain na Gaidhlig, said: “Talk about a milestone year. Five years into World Gaelic Week and it is heartening to see the growing support and excitement for the initiative. Gaelic is a language and culture of resilience, passion, connection and warmth.”
The numbers behind the language tell an interesting story. There are now around 70,000 Gaelic speakers in Scotland, with one in 40 people thought to have some level of understanding according to the last Census. The greatest areas of growth are among under 30s and in urban communities, which challenges the assumption that Gaelic belongs exclusively to the Highlands and Islands.
Scottish Gaelic has only been an official language of Scotland for approximately six months, a fact that still surprises many people given it has been spoken in this country for over a thousand years. The popular Say a Gaelic Phrase Day takes place on Thursday, when thousands share favourite words and phrases on social media. Whether that constitutes meaningful language preservation or social media tokenism probably depends on what happens on the other 358 days of the year. But the direction is encouraging.