SCA Foresters Vernal Awakening 2025

Originally Posted: 4/26/25

Event Date: 4/19/25

Intro

I've spoken a bit about the SCA before (see my post about the Autumnal gathering from last year), so won't be going as in depth about it here. But, I still wanted to make a post to just talk about what a fun day this Vernal event was! I also wanted to give some miscellaneous info. First, the photos for this post were taken by the incredibly talented Sage! Secondly, if these sort of events, or the SCA in general, are something you think you'd enjoy, and you're in or around Vermont, there's now a website for these events! Put together again by Sage, you can see info about the gatherings online here! There are also Facebook and Discord groups, if you'd prefer to stay up to date that way.

The Event

With that out of the way, let's talk about the event itself! I will preface this with I'm writing this about a week later, so my memory is slightly hazy on the exact order of some things. But, nonetheless, here we go!

The day started for me with arriving slightly late - I had to run some errands before heading to the event itself, and so showed up about a half hour or so after it officially started. This event is held seasonally, and is a great time to get out into the woods and practice some nature skills. It's also always fun seeing everyone dressed up in SCA garb. I arrived around the same time as some other folks, so walked in with them to the sort of camp area.

These events usually start with everyone getting to the camp, putting their stuff down, and then collecting wood to start a fire. I arrived right as they were starting to actually build the fire. Once the fire was lit, it was time for gratitude. Sage will give some great info about where the custom comes from as we start it, but basically we go around in the circle, introduce ourselves, say our pronouns, and talk about something we're grateful for. I believe this time we also mentioned why we were at the event, or what brought us there. Once that was done, it's time for activities or getting lunch started.

At this event, some folks went off to practice knife sharpening skills, while me and others stayed around the fire. Some folks even began cooking lunch. It's always really cool to see what people bring, and how they cook it over an open fire.

After knife sharpening and lunch, we took some group photos! We took a few serious ones, and then a silly one with crab hands!

I was also able to get some solo photos of me! I had bought the pants you can see on me at Birka, a shopping SCA event earlier this year, and this was the first time I got to try them out. I think they ended up going really well with my outfit!

After all the photos were done, it was time to head on a hike! The exact path we take is a bit different each time. For this meeting, we were going to see some frog eggs at a nearby pond!

As we were finishing up on the hike, the group got ready to split up. Some folks would be staying and helping split some firewood for a bit, while others (myself included), were going to call it a day. I spoke with Brother Herauld about a Tabletop game he's hoping to run, and then headed home for the day.