Society for Creative Anachronism

The Society for Creative Anachronism, better known as SCA, is a medieval history reenactment society founded in 1966 in California. The group has spread across most of North America and into many other parts of the world, with active groups in parts of Africa, Australia, Europe and East Asia. The SCA is divided into large regional groups called "kingdoms", which are further subdivided into various branches which may be called "regions", "principalities", "baronies", "cantons", "shires", "colleges", "ports", "strongholds", "marches" or other designations, depending upon various criteria such as population and presence of a university or military base, or geographical location. There are currently (as of 2012) about 60,000 SCA members in 19 kingdoms. SCA members track time from the first SCA event in 1966, using A.S. followed by Roman numerals for Anno Societatis or "year of the society", so the period from May 2012 to April 2013 is referred to as A.S. XLVII within the SCA.

SCA members are frequent participants of Renaissance fairs and other medieval events, and the SCA hosts many independent events in each kingdom year-round, including armored combat tournaments, archery contests, competitions in the arts and sciences of the Middle Ages, and other events.