Kilts!

I can't believe we've got to the last day of the party without talking in any detail about kilts!

I know the wearing of kilts fascinates the rest of the world, but why in the world do Scotsmen wear them?

Well, actually, they don't wear them nearly as often as you might think! Big party occasions like weddings and New Year, traditional events like Highland games, pipe band marches, or formal events where other people might wear evening dress, are the times you're most likely to see them in any quantities
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They've become a symbol of "Scottishness", of patriotism, but it might surprise you to know that the original kilt looked very little like the Highland dress of today! Today's  kilts, grew out of a romanticized version of what was basically poor Highland peasant costume, and Sir Walter Scott generally gets the credit for "inventing" it!

The irony is that Lowland gentlemen, and noblemen, would at once time have despised the kilt as the garb of the Highland lower orders. It was basically a blanket, often brightly coloured, that could be slept under at night, and then wrapped around the body and pinned for day wear. And yet, in the early years of Queen Victoria's reign, it became fashionable for all Scotsmen from whatever region, including those of the highest rank, to wear a new, romanticized version of the once despised kilt. Why?

Basically, a resurgence of Scottish pride. The Jacobite Rebellion had somewhat unfairly tarred the entire Scottish nation with the same brush of disloyalty and rebellion. Highland culture, in terms of language and dress, was outlawed, and it was very hard for Scots  to thrive in this general atmosphere of mistrust. Victoria, however, fell in love with the Highlands, and with Sir Walter Scott's romantic view of Scottish history. At least partly as a result, the Scots as a whole adopted Highland symbols like the kilt, to represent their own patriotism, their newly rediscovered  pride in their own nation.

And if nothing else, you have to agree that they're fun :).