[SCA] barony 12th night
Jan. 11th, 2009 08:43 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
cellioToday was baronial 12th night, a low-key event. The current incarnation of this event started as a casual gathering at a local university -- free, pot-luck, informal activities, and the occasional walk-in who'd never heard of the SCA before. Last year the event was held at the baron and baroness's castle, which was certainly a more aesthetic environment, and this year it was held in a rented hall. (Still a free event, though -- kudos to the officers for agreeing to that.)
A thing to consider for the future is that if we have a hall (and the castle counts), we could have a feast (maybe with pot-luck dessert, since lots of people seem to prefer bringing desserts anyway). A feast would help anchor the day so people aren't packing up and leaving at 6. And dancing; this year we had room for dancing (didn't last year) but it didn't happen. Oops.
The choir performed -- three Christmas pieces that I sat out, and then one secular song and the procession for baronial court. Court included the competition to choose the new baronial bard; there were two entrants, which made that feasible. One was at her first or second event; I was glad to see her jump in.
Local 12th night has always included a gift exchange, which I've been sitting out in recent years because the "bring a gift, take a random gift" implementation made it hard to provide or receive useful gifts. I really don't need yet another "life in the middle ages" book and would much rather a book on any specific (period) topic, even if it's not my area of interest, because a book on, say, 13th-century farming or 8th-century smithing or whatever is going to be interesting in its own right. But most people don't want to bring gifts like that for fear that they'll end up with someone not interested in those specific topics. (Yes yes, I grant that non-book gifts are theoretically possible. :-) )
However, last year they switched to a different format that was a lot of fun, so when they kept that this year we both participated. I've seen this scheme before but don't know if it has a name. You place the participants in random order; on your turn you can take a wrapped gift from the table or steal one that has already been revealed (and that person then gets to pick from the table or steal). In addition to being entertaining as you see the beer (or whatever) move from person to person, it means you can afford to have non-generic gifts because they'll probably move anyway. Hot items this year included a kids' toy (often grabbed by adults), several bottles of alcohol, a hand-bound blank book, and a hand-bound printed translation of a 16th-century text on nobility (these last two made by barony members). I was #30 of 31 so I thought I had a good chance of hanging onto that last book, but, alas, #31 took it from me. A book we brought (a collection of Columbus-era maps) moved a few times.
Most people packed up and left after court and a short barony meeting, though the event was scheduled to run a few more hours. (I don't think it did; we cleaned up a lot of the tables and chairs before we left.) Various start times had been published, the earliest being 9AM, which might have contributed. We referred to an announcement with one of the later times, so we weren't there then. (Ok, we wouldn't have been there that early anyway...)
I saw no receptacle for financial donations, and it only occurred to me after we got home to think about that. The last free event we had did accept donations; I hope the lack of that at this event doesn't mean we'll be less likely to have another free event. I always contribute more than my fair share to free events I attend, but it just didn't occur to me today without that gentle prod.
A thing to consider for the future is that if we have a hall (and the castle counts), we could have a feast (maybe with pot-luck dessert, since lots of people seem to prefer bringing desserts anyway). A feast would help anchor the day so people aren't packing up and leaving at 6. And dancing; this year we had room for dancing (didn't last year) but it didn't happen. Oops.
The choir performed -- three Christmas pieces that I sat out, and then one secular song and the procession for baronial court. Court included the competition to choose the new baronial bard; there were two entrants, which made that feasible. One was at her first or second event; I was glad to see her jump in.
Local 12th night has always included a gift exchange, which I've been sitting out in recent years because the "bring a gift, take a random gift" implementation made it hard to provide or receive useful gifts. I really don't need yet another "life in the middle ages" book and would much rather a book on any specific (period) topic, even if it's not my area of interest, because a book on, say, 13th-century farming or 8th-century smithing or whatever is going to be interesting in its own right. But most people don't want to bring gifts like that for fear that they'll end up with someone not interested in those specific topics. (Yes yes, I grant that non-book gifts are theoretically possible. :-) )
However, last year they switched to a different format that was a lot of fun, so when they kept that this year we both participated. I've seen this scheme before but don't know if it has a name. You place the participants in random order; on your turn you can take a wrapped gift from the table or steal one that has already been revealed (and that person then gets to pick from the table or steal). In addition to being entertaining as you see the beer (or whatever) move from person to person, it means you can afford to have non-generic gifts because they'll probably move anyway. Hot items this year included a kids' toy (often grabbed by adults), several bottles of alcohol, a hand-bound blank book, and a hand-bound printed translation of a 16th-century text on nobility (these last two made by barony members). I was #30 of 31 so I thought I had a good chance of hanging onto that last book, but, alas, #31 took it from me. A book we brought (a collection of Columbus-era maps) moved a few times.
Most people packed up and left after court and a short barony meeting, though the event was scheduled to run a few more hours. (I don't think it did; we cleaned up a lot of the tables and chairs before we left.) Various start times had been published, the earliest being 9AM, which might have contributed. We referred to an announcement with one of the later times, so we weren't there then. (Ok, we wouldn't have been there that early anyway...)
I saw no receptacle for financial donations, and it only occurred to me after we got home to think about that. The last free event we had did accept donations; I hope the lack of that at this event doesn't mean we'll be less likely to have another free event. I always contribute more than my fair share to free events I attend, but it just didn't occur to me today without that gentle prod.
(no subject)
Date: 2009-01-12 02:22 am (UTC)I was happy to see that the gifts I brought went to good homes.
(no subject)
Date: 2009-01-12 02:32 am (UTC)Financial donation, to the barony. Today's site cost money; it was paid for out of the proceeds of a profitable event last year. In lieu of charging a fixed fee, most free events I've been to have had a jar out for free-will donations to offset costs or help seed future events. I approve of free, donation-funded events and want to encourage the practice, so when I see a donation jar I drop in somewhere between 2 and 10 times what the site fee would have been if the event had charged a fee, because I can and others can't. (And, ok, because Milpitas doesn't get any of it.)
I was happy to see that the gifts I brought went to good homes.
It's nice when that works out, yes. Oh, another thing about what we used to do -- you usually didn't know what happened to what you brought, so you had no idea if it had found a good home. (A long time ago we drew names a month or so in advance, so you were buying a gift for a specific person, but that was harder to manage and there usually ended up being a no-show.)
(no subject)
Date: 2009-01-12 03:16 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2009-01-12 04:10 am (UTC)In fact, the Siege at Harlech II in May is also free (pay for feast for that one, tho).
Glad to hear it. I think free event + paid-for feast is a reasonable combination, and it's good to do this to help reinforce that "free event" doesn't have to mean informal pot-luck. (And if we do 12th Night in a hall again, I really would like to see -- perhaps cook -- a feast.)
(no subject)
Date: 2009-01-12 02:48 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2009-01-12 05:26 pm (UTC)There are two competing objectives for 12th night -- we want to keep it "low-key" (pillow fights, modern board games, mostly talking to friends, spectators from the university, etc.), but we also want to spruce it up with dancing and a feast. Too much stuff on the schedule, and it becomes a more substantial autocratting task, and people will feel the need to be more formal about the re-creation. Neither one is bad! I like both types of events. But I worry that you can't have your cake and eat it.
>(And if we do 12th Night in a hall again, I really would like to see -- perhaps cook -- a feast.)
I am /so/ writing that down.
(no subject)
Date: 2009-01-13 03:19 am (UTC)I am /so/ writing that down.
Please do. I enjoy cooking, but the right combination of circumstances doesn't come along very often. Baronial 12th Night has a tradition now of being on Sunday and being a free event, so it's perfect. (Assuming a kitchen; I know some cooks can manage off-site prep, but I'm not there yet.)
(no subject)
Date: 2009-01-13 05:44 pm (UTC)That's fair. It doesn't bother me because in my mind, 12th night represents one end of a spectrum of SCA authenticity. The other end would be an event at which I ask everyone to dress in British late-14th-century garb and come to the castle and not talk about modern things..... and maybe, just maybe, we could suspend disbelief for a few precious moments.