Cloved lemon
Cloved lemons are often handed around at feasts or camping events. Love it or hate it, it's a tradition that is engrained in SCA culture. Here's what happens:
Someone approaches you with a cloved lemon. You can do one of several things.
- Remove a clove from the lemon orally & swallow it.
- Remove a clove from the lemon orally & bite it, but not swallow.
- Remove a clove from the lemon orally & neither bite nor swallow it.
- Remove a clove from the lemon manually.
- Politely refuse the cloved lemon.
Option 1 indicates that you expect the giverto attempt to retrieve the clove (a more intimate kiss than some may be interested in). Option 2 generally indicates a rather friendly kiss on the mouth than option 3. Option 4 indicates a kiss on the hand may be expected. Option 5, perfectly within a gentle's rights, is an option that is respected (and often understandable). Unless you chose option 5, you then find another victim - oops! person to pass it on to. There is, of course, the other option - whenever you hear mention of a cloved lemon being passed around, to just avoid it like the Plague and go outside for a cigarette.
Also, note that custom may vary depending on where you are. Feel free to indicate verbally what level of intimacy you are comfortable with.
Why do we use cloved lemons?
In period, you never wandered up to a stranger and introduced yourself. You were always introduced by a third party. This is a little too rigid for our modern society. Instead, we have taken the third party and made it a lemon.
How did this get made up?
There's plenty of mythology about this. There is no doubt that the cloved lemon was made up (in 1974, some say), but it strikes a resonance because it bears some simularity to a few period items and practises, just enough that people keep trying to search for the period origins of this practise.
Related practises:
- Citrus may have been covered in spices to serve as a pomander
- Citrus fruit were expensive gifts in the 12th to 14th century, as they were not native to Europe, rather luxuries brought back by Crusaders
- Cloves may have been used to sweeten the breath in medieval times (proof needed)
- Kissing games did occur in medieval times.
