Haggis is a Scottish dish,which traditionally is the centerpiece of Burns Night celebrations. Burns Night is celebrated on January 25, the eve of poet Robert Burns' birthday.

Haggis is made from various parts of a sheep, onion, oatmeal, suet, and spices. The parts of the sheep in question are its heart, liver and lungs, which are mixed with all of the other ingredients and then boiled in a sheep's stomach. In the past, these were the leftover parts of a sheep and were eaten boiled mixed with vegetables as an inexpensive and nutritious meal. Today haggis is more of a delicacy, and a point of Scottish pride.

Scots in the US have had to do without haggis for 21 years. For fear that the contents of Haggis, minced sheep's offal, could cause illness, the US government banned it in 1989. Burns night revelers in the US have been forced to celebrate without a proper Haggis, often resorting to smuggling and bootlegging. However on the January 24 2010, the US government lifted the ban just in time for Burns Night.http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2010/jan/24/america-haggis-ban-lifted-burns

Beloved Scottish poet Robert "Robbie" Burns wrote the poem "Ode Tae a Haggis" and every year on Burns Night, January 25, the ode is read aloud accompanying a meal of haggis, neeps, tatties, and whisky.

If you've ever been told to watch out for the wild haggis, roaming the Scottish countryside with two legs shorter than the other to make climbing around the hillsides easier, you've been tricked by merry pranksters. Tourists to Scotland are often told the myth of the wild haggis, an animal said to be the meat that the haggis is made from. There is no such creature, though the myth persists. The video below might have you convinced!

• Amazon.com: The Haggis: A Little History