[Sca-cooks] Re: Feasts

[Olwen the Odd]

Here in Atlantia, generally the Court is first and feast after.  Sometimes
there has been known to be a few "mini-courts" throughout the day with a
larger one in the end of the day before feast.
At our Crown Tourney, just past, the Court, we thought, was supposed to be
held outdoors down by the list field.  Suddenly we see folks streaming into
the hall, stopping set up for feast and instead setting up for Court.  We,
in the kitchen, were a little miffed.  Some of the hall set up crew were
downright no happy.  As it turned out, it was a good thing they moved the
Court up to the hall because almost every award that was given out went to
someone in the kitchen!  Some of us still wonder if that was the reason for
the move, or weather it was really because of the chill in the air.  Well,
it saved a lot of time because if we had to parade the entire kitchen up and
down to the list field 4 or 5 times, supper certainly would have been
impacted!
Olwen
>     We're having a similar problem in Trimaris with daytrippers who leave
>site early. The fact that the camp we use for kingdom events is within a 3
>hour drive of probably 60-70% of the populace may have something to do with
>that. And as the SCA grows older, people are less inclined to 'rough it',
>preferring their televisions and beds to staying up late and partying like
>in the good ol' days . . .
>     I suspect that if it became standard for feast to come before court,
>people would adjust to it. After several episodes of people discovering
>that
>they had been called up in court after they had left site (and perhaps a
>few
>comments of Royal displeasure regarding this), they'll stick around. After
>enough folks DON'T get their awards because they left early, they'll learn
>to stay. This is one of those situations where the Royal Word comes in
>handy - if a name is called and they've left site, should the King say
>something to the effect of 'oh, well, perhaps my successor will hand this
>out, as this person obviously doesn't care enough to attend My court', this
>will immediately become known kingdom-wide. And the person(s) who skipped
>court to hit a MacDonalds will be kicking themselves, as well they should.
>Let this happen a few times, and BELIEVE me, court attendance will
>increase.
>     Another thing that would keep interest up in feast and also shorten
>courts would be to take care of non-essential business during feast; things
>like gift presentations, taking associates, schtick, announcements, and
>only
>doing 'official' business during court. Courts that are short and
>expeditious are very few in number, and anything that shortens them is OK
>in
>my book.
>     A trend I've been observing for a while (which is trending upwards)
>has
>been the number of 'attendees' as opposed to 'participants' at events,
>which
>daytripping encourages. Highly visible volunteers (especially those basking
>in the reflected glory of the Crowns) are plentiful, but there are fewer
>and
>fewer volunteers for the behind-the-scenes scutwork. We suffered from a
>severe shortage of kitchen volunteers last weekend at coronation . . .
>While
>this may be a topic for another thread, I'm seeing a lot more of the
>'medieval fair' attitude, where people feel that since they paid to get in,
>they're entitled to wander about and be entertained. And work, well, that's
>for the host group.
>
>     Sieggy
>
>-----Original Message-----
>
>
> >Greetings.  Siggy put forth his case for feast first and then court.
> >The "ideal order" may well depend on who the Crown is.  Both
> >Valharic and I dealt in food of one sort or another.  He was
> >mundanely a chef and I'm a kitchen scullion.  We disliked having
> >feast start late, but we also have been the victims of the
> >"never-ending feast" that takes three to four hours to serve.
> >Having court start after one of these marathon meals would be
> >disastrous.
> >
> > In the Midrealm, many folk seem to be leaving site and not eating
> >feast, regardless of when feast is served.  If feast is first,  they
> >don't get back on time (or ever) for court and aren't there to
> >receive awards.  So, our policy was court first and then feast.
> >Admittedly, we ran fast courts.  We did one 60+ award court with two
> >peerages in less than two hours.  (I think it was a little more than
> >1.5 hours.)
> >
> >The way I see it, in the Midrealm, having court first lets folk who
> >don't eat feast be able to join in the fun and celebration of court,
> >then go out and have a leisurely meal.  It's a "bummer", however, if
> >there is Royalty who take forever to do their awards and who don't
> >respect the fact that cooked food can't sit around waiting for them
> >to get done with court.
> >
> >Alys Katharine


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