A few years back, I read an article from Dundee City Archives with the subject being around Dundee becoming Scotland’s first city.
It was a very intriguing piece which explored the origin of Dundee’s city status and how Queen Victoria signed the charter which led to Dundee officially being declared Scotland’s first city.
And this week, on January 26, marks 134 years since Dundee became Scotland’s first official city.
I find the history of Scotland’s city status’ to be an intriguing one.
Dundee was the first to be made a city in 1889, followed by Aberdeen in 1891.
Inverness tried to receive city status in 1897 but failed, this had been put down to the fact that Glasgow and Edinburgh never officially received city status confirmation and it wasn’t until 1929 before things were cleared up when the four largest cities were made into “city counties”.
Initially, I never knew about this, and it was only last year when I thought about an idea which I called “Dundee Day” where on January 26, I started posting on Dundee Culture about many of the city’s achievements and why Dundee was a great place.
It was just for fun but what happened next was something I never imagined happening.
Many of the accounts who followed me got involved in the celebrations as well. From the likes of local businesses to educational institutions sharing old and new pictures of Dundee and telling their own followers about the significance of the date.
One of my favourite parts of the day was hearing what Rosebank Primary School did.
The staff got in touch with me and they shared photos of their pupils who made a whole day out of celebrating our great city.
They spent the day learning about Dundee history with jute, jam and journalism as well as creating comics and clothes from old newspapers relating to the city’s textile industry.
They had local Dundonians in to talk about what they do, they shared their reasons why they loved Dundee and they even got Dundee United involved as well where the pupils took part in football sessions.
It was incredible, and it was a day of fun, celebrating Dundee being an amazing place and what the city meant to Dundonians!
Later in the evening, I jokingly remember tweeting the city council asking for “Dundee Day” to be made an official event in the city calendar and do you know what, I don’t think it would be a bad idea at all.
I think it is important to celebrate where you come from and with the city now having it’s own day to celebrate it’s achievements and impact it has made on the world, I think we should definitely make the occasion more notable.
The timing is very ideal too as it falls on the day after Burns Night where we celebrate Robert Burns, our national bard who has been a staple for our culture centuries on end.
Having haggis, neeps, and tatties with shortbread on January 25 and then a peh with Dundee cake the following evening would be so cool. It is something that I think would be quite fun.
January 26 is “Dundee Day”, and I can’t wait to celebrate my city again.
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