Campfire is always such a unique atmosphere. That combination of competition and toilet humour, but also thoughtful reflection and tradition is a very core part of camp for so many of us – made ever clearer this weekend with the campfire circle so full it was practically bulging at the seams.
There’s always a menagerie of animals at a campfire, and between blind jellyfish, rats the size of alley cats and rattlin’… fleas? This year was no exception. Thankfully no harm came to any of the animals this year, thanks in no small part to Carl Hankinson’s excellent crowd waving skills.
And as has become a tradition in recent years, David Baden-Powell (the current Lord Baden-Powell) led a campfire ashes ceremony, adding ashes that came from campfires around the world to the fire, to be joined by members of the audience adding their own ashes. The ashes from this campfire will then be collected (in the morning – safety first) and taken to the next campfire, all around the world. As David put it “It’s like a massive DNA of ash shared between millions of people, and it feels like the DNA of Scouting”.
Speaking of traditions, the Heritage team discovered this summer that at the very first Gilwell campfire, they closed by singing Auld Lang Syne – a Scottish song about friendship and family. So it only felt right to close the centenary campfire in the same way.
And as the singing slowed and the fire began to fade (following a quick rattlin’ encore) Carl Hankinson took to the microphone for a moment of reflection. That over the 90 minutes we had been singing together, “How many young people have taken their Scout promise around the world for the first time? How many young people have joined this wonderful, wonderful family of people, connected in solidarity because we believe the world is a better place and our lives are better for having Scouting in it. And you look at those embers, and it reminds you of all the people that have helped us along the way; all the people that might have been sat here over the last 100 years, who did their best to leave the world a better place and to help other people and live by the Scout laws just like we do.”
Thank you to Alan and Lorna for running the campfire at Reunion for the last three years, as well as to Kathy and Andrew for their help this year.