SC - Hand washing ritual at feasts

[Mark Schuldenfrei]

Meriel of the Marsh asked about hand washing.
  We would love to know just how this is done. Should the servers go
  around to each seated person with pitchers of scented water and a
  towel of sorts, with a helper to catch it in a suitable container; do just the
  fingers get washed ritually or is it both hands properly; and when does
  one time it for, so that the food doesn't cold in the process and there's an
  awful hiatus?! Or what and how, please?

Ah, laving.   If I recall correctly John Russell's Book of Nurture (primary
source) and Henisch's book Fast and Feast (secondary source) all discuss
laving ceremonies.  Gervase Markham (I think) has a recipe for scented water
for laving, which I have been meaning to make for quite some time now.

Generally around here, we reserve it for high table, and individual tables
may do so as they wish.  A pitcher with laving water, and a catch bowl are
carried by a servitor, who also has a towel over one arm.  Hands are held
over the bowl, and water is trickled over them from the pitcher, and the
guest dries their own hands on the towel.

I am right handed: so the towel goes over the left arm, and the bowl in the
left hand.

We do this about 5 minutes before the meal begins.

Trivia on serving.  Didja know that proper table service in a restaurant is
to serve food over the left shoulder, and to take away empty plates from the
diners right side?  This comes from period.  The proper way to sit at table
is to take a long napkin, and drape it over the left shoulder and across the
lap, and to pull the long tablecloth up, and over the lap as well.  Full
bowls can be served over the left shoulder, and if they spill, they hit the
napkin.

Last year, at the Pennsic Royalty Dinner, the East gave out commemorative
napkins.  Princess Elspeth and Baron Steffan (of the East) were the only
people at the table to properly lay them over their left shoulders.  I had
to thank them for making my day.  And when I did, I noticed that they also
had the nappery drawn over their laps.  I told their server to please serve
them over the left, and take away from the right.

	Tibor
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