[Ansteorra] Vigils for White Scarves
Chris Zakes
dontivar at gmail.com
Mon May 7 12:48:34 PDT 2007
At 12:21 PM 5/7/2007, you wrote:
>Salut cozyns,
>
>An interesting thread was initiated on the SCA Chivalry list in
>response to the first member of the Order of the Western White
>Scarf. Apparently that gentleman sat a vigil. From an historical
>perspective, anyone can choose to hold a vigil prior to any major
>life change, but I began wondering about former and current practices here.
>
>Do candidates for the White Scarf in Ansteorra ever hold vigils? If
>yes, is this the norm or a rare event?
>
>Merces.
>
>En Lyonel
It's happened a few times in Ansteorra, but it's pretty rare. I can
only recall two occasions (Christoforo and Ansgar.)
While it's not my place to tell another kingdom how to run their
affairs, personally, I don't think it's a good idea. There's already
enough concern in some places that the White Scarf is trying to be a
"Junior Peerage," this only reinforces that misunderstanding.
There's also the fact that the SCA's style of vigil has, to the best
of my knowledge, no basis in history. A medieval vigil saw the
candidate alone in a church watching over his arms throughout the
night, not the "receiving line" that's the usual practice in the SCA.
But that's a discussion for a different day.
-Tivar Moondragon
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