Each year on January 25, there has always been the piping in of the haggis, the address to the haggis, plenty of kilts and the odd dram of scotch at the Dunedin Burns Club's annual Burns Night Dinner.
Toitu Otago Settlers' Museum visitor experience manager Kirsty Glengarry said they were important and long-held traditions.
But in recent years, some of the traditions have been polished up with a more modern brush.
As well as enjoying traditional Scottish food, the guests were able to listen to young Dunedin musicians reinterpret classic Burns songs, while sipping some of Central Otago's latest wines.
It was important to mix a little diversity into the annual event, she said.
''So, every year we have guests speaking on a theme.
''Last year, the theme was the law, because Burns had quite a few run-ins with the law. And the year before, the theme was dentists because he died of toothache.
''We take a slightly different focus on his work each year, just to keep things fresh and make it interesting for our guests.''
This year, it was ''war and peace'', themes that came up a lot in Burns' work, she said.
Commanding officer of 2/4 Royal New Zealand Infantry Regiment Lieutenant-colonel Amanda Brosnan and Knox Theological College Emeritus Professor the Rev Peter Matheson spoke respectively on Burns' idea of war and peace, and put it into today's context.
