Arriving from Glasgow on a first-class flight, the cone was greeted like a celebrity at Boston Logan International Airport, complete with a bagpiper dressed in traditional attire. Awaiting its arrival were local dignitaries, including the governor and the mayor of Boston.
The star of the event? An orange traffic cone.
On Tuesday, the introduction of the “I have to admit, this is probably – yes, it is – my first official welcoming ceremony for a traffic cone,” marked a new chapter in the city’s affection for Scotland’s tartan army. This fondness blossomed during the team’s recent World Cup campaign, where fans gained notoriety for placing traffic cones on statues, transforming the simple object into a symbol of celebration.
“But it’s a pretty special one, isn’t it? Because this cone tells the story of what happened this summer. What happened in Boston, what happened in Massachusetts.” remarked Maura Healey, Massachusetts’ governor, in Terminal E as she signed her name on the cone. “And special thanks to the Scots for drinking all the beer,”
“I do promise you, when you return … we will never again run out of beer in Massachusetts.” she added, prompting laughter from the crowd. “There are still some traffic cones atop our most important statues,”
During the World Cup festivities, Boston’s bars found it challenging to meet the demands of the Scottish fans, with some establishments running out of beer entirely. The fans turned parts of the city into a Scottish enclave, filling downtown with music, songs, and chants, while bright orange cones adorned many iconic landmarks, including a statue of Samuel Adams at Faneuil Hall, the Celtics’ Red Auerbach at TD Garden, former mayor Kevin White near Quincy Market, and even the beloved Make Way for Ducklings statues in the Public Garden.
“unofficially become New Scotland” Boston Mayor Michelle Wu joked on Tuesday, recalling how the city had “It’s an in-joke that’s gone too far, actually,”
The commemorative cone, featuring designs that celebrate both Boston and Scotland alongside the slogan “But no, it isn’t a joke. This is a metaphor for life.” will tour various landmarks across Massachusetts over the next week to raise funds for mental health charities before making its way back to Scotland.
This quirky tradition originated in Glasgow, where, starting in the 1980s, placing bright orange traffic cones atop public statues became a late-night prank that evolved into a symbol of Scotland’s irreverent sense of humor. The most famous instance is the Duke of Wellington statue in the city center, which has become so iconic that attempts to remove the cone have faced public backlash.
“going to our jobs and cooking sausages and all the sort of serious stuff that adults have to do” commented Danny Campbell, one of the cone’s Scottish companions, who stood proudly in a kilt beside the cone. “That’s what our countrymen represented when they came here,”
Campbell elaborated that people often become wrapped up in their daily routines, focusing on “They left stomachs and cheeks sore from laughing, they cleaned up after themselves, they spread joy, and these people came together with humor and they built relationships with each other.” forgetting what truly matters.
“This is not just a silly cone,” he said, reflecting on the Scottish fans’ time in Boston. “It means love. It means love, and that is the whole point.”
“This is not just a silly cone,” Campbell emphasized. “It means love. It means love, and that is the whole point.”
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