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Report: 12th Night Celebration - January 2002 Updated: Aug 27, 2002

Gaming and music
Guillaume the gaming guru ran gaming, Martin and Orrick plucked and strummed pleasant and sundry notes during the day, and members of Peach Curry performed during the feast.

Baronial Court
After feast, Baron Conmaol and Baroness Ximena held a short court:

• Lord Rhydderch thanked and recognized all of the archers in the barony for their efforts during the year to improve the kingdom's standing in interkingdom archery competitions.
• The ladies of the barony presented the South Downs Chivalry Award to Baron Damon Fox.
• The autocrats thanked people who had helped thus far - more on that later.

Some call him Santa...
Father Christmas made an appearance and gifts went out to the MANY children present.

Singing and dancing
The South Downs Choristers, accompanied by Peach Curry, played the carol "Ding Dong Merrily On High" to which the dancers performed the Official Bransle. After that, Mistress Christianna got volunteers for an audience participation version of the Twelve Days of Christmas. My favorite moments:

Sabah's keen imitation of a typical "whiny" instrument for the 11 Pipers.
Christoph, Mad Celt, and two other manly men high-kicking for the 10 Lords a-Leaping.
Chandani and Kytte twirling for the 9 Ladies Dancing.
Balthazar as an unlikely cow getting, um, milked(?) for the 8 Maids a-Milking.
Viscount William as a squawking goose for the 6 Geese a-Laying...
    (except on verse 12 when he just laid out flat!)

And the real show stoppers - Conmaol and Ximena as the 2 Turtledoves. Early on, they flapped their arms and kissed. On the last verse, Conmaol carried her away!!

Colorful clothing
Lots of people wore red and/or white - and that was really nice to see. Those who didn't were easier to find in the crowd (heh heh). Notably, Mistress Rhiannon came in rather, um, comfortable attire. She said John thought that he needed to bring a Christmas peasant...

The Bells and Pillows combat didn't happen - people were content to dance, chitchat, and hand out 12th Night gifts. After dancing, we swiftly cleaned up and shut down the site around 11:15 pm.

Estimated attendance: 135!

THANKS!
The autocrats, Elspeth and Yves, would like to thank...

• Everyone who attended, everyone who brought food, everyone who donated money
• AEthelwynn for the advice, Emma for the use of the red and white fabric
• Seonaid for hauling and laundering lots of blue and black Baronial decorations
• Kevin and Signy for coming all the way over from Thorngil, bringing roaster ovens and making chicken in wine (that's coq au vin for you FOODIES out there)
• Orrick & AEthelthryth, Sebastien, Vyncent, Enawynn, and Maureen & Michael for helping set up and decorate
• Martin & Orrick for the music during the day
• Peach Curry and the Choristers Guild for the music during feast
• Carlwyn, Aeruin, and Serena for running the heraldic consultation table
• Guillaume for running the games
• Father Christmas and his helpers
• Borgar, Lorraine, Christopher for the ham, turkey and drinks (especially the lemonade) - and for being (as Borgar puts it) self-contained...
• Peryn and Rhydderch for running the dancing
• Christianna and all the performers for the 12 Days of Christmas
• Balthazar for the pictures
• Kiyotora & David (now known as Tarou), Seric, and about twenty more people who helped break down and clean up the site in record time!!

Now if anyone got lost going home THIS year, *I* haven't heard about it...

Thanks to Balthazar, you can see PICTURES!

For those curious to know what I look like, or haven't yet seen me with short hair: in the dancing pictures, I'm the one in the red doublet, gold tabard (a giorna) and white hosen.

DISCLAIMER: This wasn't an official Meridies SCA "event" in that it wasn't on the Kingdom Calendar.
However, it was an "event" in other aspects.

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