SYRACUSE, N.Y. (NCC News) — The Highland Games competition is returning this year for the 79th time. The tradition of holding this event on the second weekend of August will also continue.
Hosting games in Central New York stems back before World War II. The CNY Scottish Games President Jim Engle said the cultural event came to Auburn and later Syracuse in the late 1930s.
“Scottish games of course are held literally all over the world, originated of course in Scotland, more exactly the highlands of Scotland,” Engle said. “Wherever immigrants traveled across the world they establish these events.”
The Scottish games include piping and drumming as well as athletic competitions that begin at 8:30 a.m. People from all over come to compete and perform in a vibrant daylong event.
“The whole thing is very very colorful and I think people like that, the sounds, the sights, the smells even, because we have the ethnic food,” Engle said.
Engle added that there will be a unique focus of this event. It will feature and honor the Ukrainian community with a special Ukrainian Tartan included in the opening ceremony.
For more information here is a link to the CNY Scottish Games website:
