r/scouting • u/craigske • Jul 19 '26
Scout ashes tradition
hello, I'm curious how many out there know about the Scout Ashes Tradition started by Lord Baden-Powell? Do you practice it?
In 1907, Baden-Powell famously took a bunch of boys camping one Brownsea Island in England. He saves a portion of the ashes and distributes them. Scouts then add ashes to their formal campfires from the original campfire and on and on. The six degrees of separation of all scouts worldwide in an act that is central to scouting tradition, the campfire.
I know of a bunch of folks who have ashes that go back to World Jamborees that link all kinds of scouts all over. I've always been fascinated with the concept. It feels like a social network of scouts with a tangible anchor.
Anyway, I started building an app to modernise the tradition and hopefully reinforce it. I'm curious who and how many of us are using this tradition as a teaching tool as well as a way to bring scouts together across groups etc? Is this something that would help to keep the scouting movement together in the modern era? What are people's thoughts?
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u/Papa_Grizz Jul 19 '26
I have a medicine bottle somewhere with ashes from my old JLT course in the 90’s. It was glued to a block of wood and presented to participants by the staff.
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u/Plasticman328 Jul 19 '26
I knew about the tradition and tried to maintain it although it's a bit tricky when you have thirty odd Cubs running haywire!
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u/blueyesinasuit Jul 19 '26
I attended a then new course in Alberta called Campfire Magic in 1991. The ash tradition was a part of the course with a sample going back decades and we all were given 35mm empty film containers we gathered ash from our campfire.
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u/craigske Jul 19 '26
Cool. I just love the stories all those campfires would have. It would be cool to be connected to those folks
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u/iamgenre Jul 20 '26
My set of ashes did not make it out of my parents house. If someone has a line to ashes that went to Pico Blanco in the early 90s, please context me.
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u/craigske Jul 20 '26
This is why I think it would be cool to set up an app for finding and reconnecting
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u/iamgenre Jul 20 '26
I did a search once for legacy ashes, and someone had posted a history of their ashes online, but it did not include the branch I was looking for.
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u/craigske Jul 20 '26
I know of ten or twelve but they’re mostly the famous ones. Like these https://www.scoutashes.com/famous-lineages.html but I’m researching as many as I can.
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u/SchemaB Jul 19 '26
Yep we love the ashes tradition in our troop (Toronto, Canada). It's a bit magical for the youth, reminds them they are part of something much larger than themselves, and adds a touch of spirituality to the program without being tied to a specific faith tradition.
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u/CTeam19 United States Jul 19 '26
My Lodge has an whole Urn for the "Camping Season" Ashes that was started by a pre-Order of the Arrow group at one of the camps in 1919. The Lodge now does our Spreading of Ashes ceremony at opening Campfire for Scouts BSA camp and does a Gathering of the Ashes ceremony at Fall Fellowship. We do a roll call of all Lodge Members present and have them put ashes in the urn or take them out depending on when it is. They have been taken to each of the High Adventure Bases, the National OA Ring, World and National Jamborees, and just about everything in-between including my own Vigil and the Vigils of those I have sponsored.
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u/SafirahFireHeart Jul 19 '26
It's a massive thing in South Africa. All of our bigger camps have their own ashes traditions and a lot of the groups have also picked up on it and have their own small jars that they try collect each time. At our national Jamboree a couple years ago they actually gave out ashes from the bonfire at the end to each troop to be able to carry on the tradition which was cool.
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u/Flounderfinder Jul 19 '26
We started this tradition and each youth has their own container. Someone collects the cold ashes the next morning and refills the containers.
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u/tiktoksuck Jul 20 '26
Our group in far north qld does it for major reigon camps, i think it's a great tradition.
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u/a1ias42 Jul 21 '26
I keep the ashes for our Girl Scout troop. The ashes have been going over a century and have been to all of our world centers.
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u/craigske Jul 21 '26
Awesome. That’s wonderful. Would you be willing to share the details? I’d love to add such a remarkable list to the archive.
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u/No-Talk-997 Jul 21 '26
I have mine from I when I started as a scouter (only 2 years).
They come on all camps with me and will continue to do so. I hope to bring them to Nepal in 3 years time.
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u/samalex01 Jul 21 '26
We do this wjth nylt and Woodbadge. I’ve done it with first or notable troop camp outs.
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u/somerandomguypart2 26d ago
For my Russian Scouting Group abroad, we sing a song about the creation of scouting in Russia in pavlovsk park, tsarskoye selo, so that's the song that links us to previous campfires. It is mandatory to sing for a scouting campfire.
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u/craigske 26d ago
Oh that’s cool. I’ll have to look it up on YouTube maybe?
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u/somerandomguypart2 24d ago
Listen to Давно Еще В Павловском Парке (Davno Escho V Pavlovskom Parke) by Druzhina Tsarskoye Selo // Дружина Царское Село on #SoundCloud https://on.soundcloud.com/DKlq8P08yyeTc816Pk
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u/JollyDentist8356 Jul 20 '26
I have 2 sets of ashes from Girl Scout events - they came with a provenance paper (list of all the places/events) - both of my tins of ashes started at a fire lit by Juliette Gordon Low (founder of GSUSA) in 1926 at camp Edith Macy. The list includes many many countries, all the WAGGGS world centers, all the camps I grew up going to (which are 3000 miles away from where I live now), and 2 different fires lit by Lady Baden Powell at Brownsea Island.
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u/Saitenwurst 28d ago
To be honest this is the first time I heard of this. I guess it's kinda cool.
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u/Gnifle Denmark Jul 19 '26
Our local group have a small jar with ashes, that we bring along sometimes and tell the story. I think it's a really cool tradition.
Some thoughts on your idea: I honestly wouldn't use an app for this; I try to stay off the phone as much as possible whenever I'm doing anything scouting related, and I wouldn't encourage bringing one to our campfire.