Jamboree Symbol: The White Stag
The white stag of Hungarian mythology was the national symbol of Hungary and the official badge of the Jamboree. During the Jamboree, Scouts from the American contingent learned from their Hungarian "cousin" the meaning of the White Stag on their jamboree patch:
| “ | One day, many years ago, Hunor and Magor, the two sons of King Nimrod of the Orient, were out hunting with a number of their men. Suddenly, from a thicket, jumped the most beautiful deer they had ever seen. Immediately they started in pursuit. Over mountain sides, through valleys and forests, across rivers, they followed the magnificent animal, until, with darkness, they lost track of it. There was nothing for them to do except make camp right where they were and await the coming of morning.
When they awoke the next morning, a gorgeous sight greeted their eyes. In their wild ride, they had crossed the borders of their own country and had arrived in another of which they had never heard, a country richly endowed with good soil, beautiful forest, fruits, flowers, game and fish. Hunor and Magyar, decided that this was the land of their choice. They went back for their father's blessing and then returned with their wives to their new rich country. Through the ages they prospered. The descendants of Hunor became the Huns and of Magor, the Magyars, who now form the Hungarian nation. |
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Baden-Powell also referred to the symbol of the Hungarian people in his farewell address to the assembled Scouts:
| “ | Each one of you wears the badge of the White Stag of Hungary. I want you to treasure that badge when you go from here and to remember that, like the Golden Arrow, it also has its message and its meaning for you.
The Hungarian hunters of old pursued the miraculous Stag, not because they expected to kill it, but because it led them on in the joy of the chase to new trails and fresh adventures, and so to capture happiness. You may look on that White Stag as the pure spirit of Scouting, springing forward and upward, ever leading you onward and upward to leap over difficulties, to face new adventures in your active pursuit of the higher aims of Scouting—aims which bring you happiness. These aims are to do your duty wholeheartedly to God, to your country, and to your fellow man by carrying out the Scout Law. In that way you will, each one of you, help to bring about God's kingdom upon earth—the reign of peace and goodwill. Therefore, before leaving you, I ask you Scouts this question—Will you do your best to make friendship with others and peace in the world? |
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Among the boys attending was 14-year-old Béla Bánáthy, who met Baden-Powell when he inspected Béla's campsite, and was inspired as an adult to draw on the myth of the white stag from Hungarian mythology when he organized the White Stag Leadership Development Program in Monterey, California in 1958. In Monterey, Béla would meet three other men who had attended the Jamboree: Joseph Szentkirályi (later Americanized as Joseph St. Clair) became Chairman of the Hungarian Language Department at the Army Language School; Paul Ferenc Suján (whose stew was tasted by Baden Powell at that same Jamboree) was also an instructor at the Army Language School; and American Scouter F. Maurice Tripp had become a research scientist and a member of the National Council of the Boy Scouts of America.
At the same time, the newly formed World Association of Girl Guides and Girl Scouts held its first World Camp in Royal Forest of Gödöllő from July 25 to August 7, 1939, and attended by some 5,800 Girl Guides from around the world. They named the camp Pax Ting.
Read more about this topic: 4th World Scout Jamboree
Famous quotes containing the words white and/or stag:
“Light is meaningful only in relation to darkness, and truth presupposes error. It is these mingled opposites which people our life, which make it pungent, intoxicating. We only exist in terms of this conflict, in the zone where black and white clash.”
—Louis Aragon (1897–1982)
“What was dancing to you then?
We went from the high gate away
To a black hill the other side of men
Where one wild stag stared
At the going day.”
—Allen Tate (1899–1979)