A jamboree is any large, lively, often noisy gathering or festive celebration and is applied to music jamborees, sales jamborees and motor racing jamborees. The term has been adopted for large gatherings of Scouts and Girl Guides.
A jamboree is any large, lively, often noisy gathering or festive celebration and is applied to music jamborees, sales jamborees and motor racing jamborees. The term has been adopted for large gatherings of Scouts and Girl Guides.
The Oxford English Dictionary (OED) identifies the term Jamboree as coming from American slang, identifying a use in the New York Herald in 1868 and in Irish writing later in the 19th century. The Canadian Oxford Dictionary indicates the etymology of the term is "19th century, origin unknown". Some linguists believe it is a playful blend of "jabber" and "shivaree," a French folk tradition involving noisy, mocking celebrations.
Early 20th century use of the term refer to "a lavish or boisterous celebration or party". 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". 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'."
Other claimed possible origins for the term range from Hindi to the Swahili word for hello, Jambo!, to Native American languages.
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. For example, an attendee of a jambo is a jamboree.[dubious – discuss]
The term jamboree was adopted for large national and international gatherings of Scouts and/or Girl Guides. 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.
The first International Jamboree of Scouts (retrospectively called the 1st International Jamboree and, later still, the 1st World Jamboree) was held in 1920 in the United Kingdom. Many, at this first "jamboree" did not fully capture the spirit of this then-new concept. At the first World Jamboree at Olympia, London, in 1920, Robert 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."
Since then, there have been twenty-four other Scout World Jamborees, hosted in various countries, generally every four years. The 26th World Jamboree is to be held in Poland in 2027.
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.
— Robert Baden-Powell, (September 1932)
Within the Scout Movement, it is often mistakenly believed that the word jamboree was coined by Baden-Powell but, as indicated above, the word jamboree was in prior use. Baden-Powell was once asked why he chose "jamboree" as the name for large gatherings of Boy Scouts. He replied, "What else would you call it?"[citation needed] The Celtic mythologist, 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.
Olave Baden-Powell coined the term 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.
Other large gatherings are held by Scout organizations, geared towards a particular age groups. Examples of these large gatherings include:
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