SC - Fw: [Mid] Feasts

[Charles McCN]

[snip]
> > > I have a preference in feasts.
> > >
> > > I like feasts to be a reasonable length.
[snip]

Aaaah, another nice topic...

Nearly all the feasts I do are at night. That way I don't have to get 
upso early in the morning, something I am not inclined towards anyway. 

A reasonable time to start serving food is about 7.30 (There are going to 
be many uses of the word reasonable here. It means "whait _I_ feel is 
right ;)

There need to be a few breaks for entertainment, or going for a short 
constitutional intercourse to let the food settle (or something like that 
- - is there a real technuical term ?) and make room for more. Typically I 
think around midnight or so is a erasonable time at which to stop serving 
and let people relax for an extended break - an hour or two before the 
serious feasters get into the leftovers.

Few people can sit through the whole thing - getting up and dancing, or 
wrestling, or just walking around is usual, until later in teh evening, 
when the philosophers try to find a universal formula for determining 
whether to get up and get a drink, or try to convince someone else to do 
it.

Of course for folk who have the pressures of small children who are going 
to get up at 6am this may not be helpful, unless they can be trained 
(most can) to crawl into the corner where the furry things are and sleep, 
and to go outside and play in the morning rather than loudly running over 
slleping bodies.

It also entails having to clean up the next morning (this is why I like 
'field cooking') around the odd aforementioned body.

But I feel that a reasonable person could expect 
to last four hours at a feast without much difficulty (so long as the 
food and entertainment are up to scratch), and a bit of training can 
easily increase this to pretty much all day and well into the night.

At my wedding, which was atttended by a moajority of 'permanently 
mundane' (in the SCA sense, not the usual one) people we had about 30 dishes 
over five hours in five courses. Everybody coped with the first three 
easily, and most people (my aged grandparents etc) were there until the 
food stopped appearing. (It was not the most period feast I ave had, but 
apart from teh band afterwards and the signing documents stuff there was 
not a lot that jarred)

just my first 2c worth (round as you will. Maybe all you americans can 
add tax first...?)

Charles (trying to have an inflated opinion... ;)
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