Jamboree

The 1st World Scout Jamboree was held in 1920, and was hosted by the United Kingdom. Since then, there have been twenty-four other World Scout Jamborees, hosted in various countries, generally every four years. The 26th World Jamboree is to be held in Poland in 2027.

{{Quote |text=The average Scout Life of a boy is a comparatively short one, and it is good for each generation of Scouts to see at least one big rally, since it enables the boy to realize his membership of a really great brotherhood, and at the same time brings him into personal acquaintance with brother Scouts of other districts and other countries. |author=Baden-Powell |source=(September 1932)}}

There are also national and continental jamborees held around the world with varying frequency. Many of these events will invite and attract Scouts from overseas.

With the birth of the Jamboree concept, other large gatherings are also organized by national Scout organizations, geared towards a particular group of Scouts. Examples of these large gatherings include:

• Moot – a camp or a gathering of Rovers
• Venture – a gathering of young people in the Venture (Senior Scout) section
• Indaba – a camp or a gathering of Adult Scout leaders
• Agoonoree – a camp of Scouts with special needs
• COMDECA – acronym for Community Development Camp, a large gathering of young people, implementing community development projects{{citation needed|date=August 2018}}

The origin of the word jamboree is not well understood. This is reflected in many dictionary entries. For example, according to the Canadian Oxford Dictionary, the etymology is "19th century, origin unknown". The Oxford English Dictionary (OED) identifies it as coming from American slang, identifying a use in the New York Herald in 1868 and in Irish writing later in the 19th century.{{cite dictionary |url=http://www.oed.com/view/Entry/100700?redirectedFrom=jamboree |entry=jamboree, n. |title=OED Online |date=September 2013 |publisher=Oxford University Press |access-date=7 October 2013}}

It is popularly believed within the Scouting Movement that the word was coined by Baden-Powell, but there is no written documentation by either Powell or Scouting publications, and the word was in use decades earlier.{{r|OED_ref}}

Baden-Powell was once asked why he chose "jamboree". He replied, "What else would you call it?" Other than a light-hearted retort, one way his response could have made sense is if the word had already had a specific meaning.{{citation needed|date=October 2017}}

Other writers used "jamboree" in the early 20th century, prior to its use in Scouting, to refer to "a lavish or boisterous celebration or party".{{cite dictionary |entry=Jamboree |publisher=Oxford University Press |title=The Concise Oxford University Dictionary |edition=10th |year=1999}}{{cite dictionary |entry=Jamboree |website=Dictionary.com |title=Collins English Dictionary |edition=10th Edition – Complete & Unabridged |publisher=HarperCollins |url=http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/jamboree |access-date=2 November 2015}} Poet Robert W. Service used the term in a poem, Athabaska Dick, published in 1912: "They are all a-glee for the jamboree, and they make the Landing ring".{{cite book |author=Service, Robert W. |author-link=Robert W. Service |title=Rhymes of a Rolling Stone |url=https://archive.org/details/rhymesarollings00servgoog |year=1912 |chapter=Athabaska Dick|publisher=Dodd, Mead and company }} Lucy Maud Montgomery used the term three times in 1915 in Anne of the Island, a book set in the 1880s. For example, "There was quite a bewildering succession of drives, dances, picnics and boating parties, all expressively lumped together by Phil under the head of “jamborees”.{{cite book |url=http://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/51 |title=Anne of the Island |last=Montgomery |first=L.M. |author-link=Lucy Maud Montgomery |year=1915 |language=en |access-date=2006-03-08 |df=dmy-all}}

Robert Graves suggested in 1954 that Baden-Powell might have known the word through his regiment's Irish links, rather than from U.S. slang.{{cite book |last=Graves |first= Robert |author-link=Robert Graves |title=The Crowning Privilege |url=https://archive.org/details/crowningprivileg017939mbp |series=The Clark Lectures, 1954–1955 |date=1956 |page= 199 |publisher=Doubleday |lccn=56-6542}}

The word "jamboree" has several claimed possible origins, ranging from Hindi to Swahili to Native American languages, which further confuses the meaning used by Baden-Powell.{{cite book |author=Ashton, E. O. |title=Swahili Grammar: Including intonation |publisher=Longman House |year=1947 |isbn=0-582-62701-X}}{{cite book |author1=Nurse, Derek |author2=Hinnebusch, Thomas J. |title=Swahili and Sabaki: a linguistic history |year=1993 |series=University of California Publications in Linguistics |volume=121}}

A guess is that the word "jamboree" is derived from the Swahili for hello, Jambo!. Baden-Powell spent a considerable amount of time in East Africa in the 1880s, then again in the late 1890s.{{cite book |last=Begbie |first=Harold |author-link=Edward Harold Begbie |title=The story of Baden-Powell: The Wolf that never Sleeps |location=London |publisher=Grant Richards |date=1900 |url=http://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/17300}}{{cite book |author=Prins, A.H.J. |contribution=Swahili the Swahili-speaking peoples of Zanzibar and the East African Coast (Arabs, Shirazi, and Swahili) |title=Ethnographic Survey of Africa |editor=Forde, Daryll |publisher=International African Institute |location=London, UK |year=1961}}{{cite book |author=Prins, A.H.J. |year=1970 |title=A Swahili Nautical Dictionary |series=Preliminary Studies in Swahili Lexicon |volume=1 |location=Dar es Salaam}}

The word "jamboree" is used primarily by the Scouting program following the first Boy Scout jamboree in 1920. Baden-Powell is said to have deliberately chosen the name "jamboree" where attendees were warmly welcomed attending this first Boy Scout rally or meeting with the word "jambo", but see Etymology, above.

The word jamboree in English is used as a borrowed foreign word, with the ending -ree. The word jamboree is both a noun and a transitive verb, with a direct action of the root word jambo.{{cite journal |last1=Hopper |first1=Paul J |last2=Thompson |first2=Sandra A |title=Transitivity in grammar and discourse |journal=Language |date=June 1980 |volume=56 |issue=2 |pages=251–299 |url=http://latina.phil2.uni-freiburg.de/raible/Lehre/2006/Materialien/Hopper_Thompson.pdf |access-date=24 January 2016 |doi=10.1353/lan.1980.0017|s2cid=144215256 }} For example, an attendee of a jambo is a jamboree.

Many, at this first "jamboree" or Scout gathering, did not fully capture the spirit of this then-new concept or greeting. At the first World Jamboree at Olympia, London, in 1920, Baden-Powell said:

"People give different meanings for this word, but from this year on, jamboree will take a specific meaning. It will be associated to the largest gathering of youth that ever took place."{{cite book |first=John S. |last=Wilson |year=1959 |title=Scouting Round the World |edition=First |publisher=Blandford Press |page=238}}

Olave Baden-Powell coined the term {{not a typo|jamborese}} to refer to the lingua franca used between Scouts of different languages and cultural habits, that develops when diverse Scouts meet, that fosters friendship and understanding between Scouts of the world. Sometimes the word "jamborette" is used to denote smaller, either local or international, gatherings.{{cite book |first=John S. |last=Wilson |year=1959 |title=Scouting Round the World |edition=First |publisher=Blandford Press |page=122}}

A similarly-used word, "camporee," in the Scouting program is also reflective of the older British use. "Camporee" reflects a local or regional gathering of Scouting units for a period of camping and common activities.{{cite web |url=http://usscouts.org/usscouts/camporees.asp |series=U.S. Scouting Service Project |title=Camporee}} Similar to a camporee, a jamboree occurs less often and draws units from the entire nation or world.{{cite web |url=http://jambo.org/ |series=U.S. Scouting Service Project |title=US Jamboree |access-date=2017-10-15 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170925024018/http://jambo.org/ |archive-date=2017-09-25 |url-status=dead }}{{cite web |url=https://summit.scouting.org/en/Pages/default.aspx |publisher=BSA |title=The Summit, US Jamboree}}{{cite web |url=http://scouting.org/worldjamboree.aspx |website=Scouting.org |title=World Jamboree |access-date=2017-10-15 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120419221324/http://scouting.org/worldjamboree.aspx |archive-date=2012-04-19 |url-status=dead }}

• World Scout Jamboree, a gathering of Scouts from all over the world under the World Organization of the Scout Movement. Attendance is 30–40,000.
• World Scout Jamboree on the Air (JOTA) – an amateur radio event linking Scouts across the world
• World Scout Jamboree on the Internet (JOTI)
• Jamboree on the Trail (JOTT) is an international day of hiking
• Africa Scout Jamboree
• Arab Scout Jamboree
• Asia-Pacific Scout Jamboree
• Caribbean Scout Jamboree, a gathering of Scouts from the Caribbean
• Central European Jamboree, a gathering of Scouts from Central Europe
• European Scout Jamboree, a gathering of Scouts from all over Europe
• Interamerican Scout Jamboree, a gathering of Scouts from the Interamerican Scout Region
• Baltic Jamboree, a gathering of Scouts and Guides from Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia together with international guests from other countries{{Cite web |last= |first= |title=The Baltic Jamboree 2022 "Back to the Balts" is going to be held in Lithuania! – Naujienos {{!}} Skautai – geresniam pasauliui |url=https://skautai.lt/naujienos/2801-the-baltic-jamboree-2022-back-to-the-balts-is-going-to-be-held-in-lithuania |access-date=2023-03-23 |website=Skautai |language=en}}
• Essex International Jamboree, a gathering of 7,000–9,000 Scouts and Guides from all over the world, held since 1927
• World Federation of Independent Scouts World Jamboree, a gathering of Scouts of the World Federation of Independent Scouts
• Jamboree 2008 (Northumberland), a celebration of the 1908 Humshaugh camp
• Homenetmen General Jamboree, a gathering of Scouts of the Homenetmen
• International Cultural Jamboree

• National Scout jamboree, Boy Scouts of America
• Canadian Scout Jamboree, a gathering of Scouts from Canada
• Lithuanian National Jamboree, a gathering of Scouts from Lithuania, held every five years{{Cite web |title=Scouts - Lithuanian Jamboree "Between Three Waters" |url=https://www.scouts.org.uk/events/2023/july-2023/lithuanian-jamboree-between-three-waters/ |access-date=2023-03-23 |website=www.scouts.org.uk |language=en}}
• Australian Scout Jamboree, a gathering of Scouts from Australia and the Asia-Pacific Region
• Australian Girl Guide Jamboree, a gathering of Girl Guides from around Australia and the world.
• Nippon Jamboree, a gathering of Scouts from Japan
• Nawaka, a gathering of Sea Scouts in the Netherlands
• Irish Scout Jamborees
• New Zealand Scout Jamboree
• Girl Scout Senior Roundup
• {{cite web |url=http://www.bsgindia.org/njamboree.htm |title=Gathering of Scouts and Guides in India |access-date=2013-07-02 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20111211232139/http://www.bsgindia.org/njamboree.htm |archive-date=2011-12-11 |url-status=dead }}

{{Portal|Scouting}}

• Agoonoree
• Camporee
• Indaba
• World Camp (Guiding)

{{Reflist}}

{{wiktionary|jamboree}}

{{wikisource|Athabaska Dick|Athabaska Dick}}

• {{cite web |url=http://www.scout.org/en/information_events/events/world_scout_events/jamboree/jamboree_history |title=Jamboree history |website=Scout.org |access-date=2013-10-07 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130907135806/http://scout.org/en/information_events/events/world_scout_events/jamboree/jamboree_history |archive-date=2013-09-07 |url-status=dead}}
• {{cite web |url=http://flamboree.be/pages/english.php |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080915190652/http://flamboree.be/pages/english.php |url-status=dead |archive-date=2008-09-15 |title=Flamboree – Flemish National Jamboree in Belgium}}
• {{cite web |url=http://jamboree2008.scouts.lt/ |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080703133906/http://jamboree2008.scouts.lt/ |url-status=dead |archive-date=2008-07-03 |title=Lithuanian Scouts Jamboree}}
• {{cite web |url=http://jamboree.scouts.org.nz/ |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080223150939/http://jamboree.scouts.org.nz/ |url-status=dead |archive-date=2008-02-23 |title=C-Jam 2008 – New Zealand National Jamboree in Christchurch}}
• {{cite web |url=http://www.bsajamboree.org |title=BSA 2010 100th Anniversary Jamboree}}
• {{cite web |url=http://www.nsj2010ham.com/ |title=K2BSA at the 2010 National Scout Jamboree |access-date=2010-06-16 |archive-date=2010-07-07 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100707213156/http://www.nsj2010ham.com/ |url-status=dead}}
• {{cite web |url=http://www.canadianjamboreebadges.info/ |title=Canadian Jamboree Badge |series=Reference Page}}

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Category:Scouting events