The SCA is the society for creative and anachronism is something out of its time period. We call it creative because we re-enact things as they might have been, with the height of chivalry on our courtesy and not necessarily some of the brutality and other downsides you find in the chronicles of the Middle Ages and the actual times. times. We recreate the entire spectrum of medieval society, including arts and sciences such as leatherwork, metalwork, calligraphy, that's the fancy writing. Anything that they would have done in the middle ages we can recreate today only perhaps with some more safety factors. For instance if we're doing pottery we don't necessarily use lead glaze which is known to to cause lead poisoning. In addition we recreate the culture, the panoply, the pageantry. An association with that is our fighting. We recreate medieval foot combat as it was fought then and we use wooden weapons at full speed in non-choreographed combat so we might learn better what it was that they were thinking and doing at that time by re-enacting it through living it. In addition to this we armor ourselves partly for safety reasons of course especially in the case of the head and other vital areas but also to recreate the the feel of what it was like to step out in a full set of armor and to fight an armored opponent. Our fighting can take several forms. We recreate everything from one-on-one tournaments up to wars with 1500 people on a side in full tactics. At the average event we would go to you would find a tournament and in this tournament it would be singled or double elimination and you would fight until a victor was chosen and that victor would receive a place of honor at high table at the feast that evening. There's a great camaraderie that is fostered among the fighters and this comes from sharing dangerous or thrilling experiences together. There are many times that the person standing next to you in the line has saved your life so to speak or you have saved his and there's a bond that goes there ensuring that experience in the rush of having a couple of hundred people run up on you. In addition to the diversity of arts and sciences, the fighting, the culture, you find a diversity of people in the SCA and all these people meet on a common ground. This common ground of interest in the Middle Ages and so you can find yourself with an interesting diversity of people sharing a feast and discussing today's events or some other historical anecdotes you made have picked up in your reading or discussing the proper execution of a costume or a piece of armor and so that is one of the qualities of our society or group that we greatly value. If the recreation is done properly what you find or moments what you call magical moments or timeless moments. Everyone around you is in costume. You may be in the middle of a fierce battle with armored men fighting you in your comrades. You may find yourself in a deep forest walking with a friend but during those moments time as it exists today disappears and you find yourself in the shoes of a medieval person living their experiences. That's one of the great thrills of being in this group.