Highland Games 1642 Montreal Tartan Chapter Patch
Highland Games in Montreal (Verdun) to benefit The Douglas Hospital for Mental Health Charity. July 2022
We have created a special patch of our logo with proceeds to go to the charity on a tartan onto made specifically for the city of Montreal called the 1642 Tartan. This tartan was donated courtesy of The St. Andrews Society of Montreal. Please read below;
The Montreal 1642 Tartan is a gift to the City and citizens of Montreal on the 375th anniversary of the founding of our great metropolis.
The Scots were here in the days of New France, played an important role on both sides of the Seven Years' War, and thrived during the tumultuous years of the fur trade and exploration as well as the development of responsible government. Our community actively led the industrial revolution of the nineteenth century. Waves of Scottish immigrants arrived in the twentieth century, escaping depression and yearning for a new future; they came in great numbers and significantly shaped our city.
The Montreal 1642 tartan represents Scots and our civic and military organizations. White and blue for the St. Andrew's Society and the Scottish Saltire, green and black for the Black Watch (Royal Highland Regiment of Canada), red for McGill University, saffron and scarlet for the 78th Fraser Highlanders and others: the Highland Games Society, the Caledonian Society, the Sons of Scotland, and the Scottish Benevolent Society.
The blue and white, red and green represent the founding peoples of Montreal: the Scots by the white and blue of St. Andrew, our Irish brethren by the green of St. Patrick, the English by the red of St. George, and the French by the blue of St. Jean and the white of the fleur de lys. Blue is shared between the Scots and the French, and recalls the long-held Auld Alliance between Scotland and France.
The interlocking shades of the tartan express the peaceful integration of these original founding peoples with those of many other nations and cultures that have arrived here from around the globe.
The green is for the forests of Mount Royal and underscores our reawakened respect for the environment and for the First Nations peoples who have loved this land since time immemorial and whose values have helped to shape us.
The Scottish community of 2017 is small but strong, and is a vibrant and proud part of the multicultural metropolis that is Montreal.
We of Scottish origin are proud to share our heritage with this gift of the Montreal 1642 Tartan to the citizens of Montreal.