“ | Anybody who's not a cakesniffer knows that False Spring is when the weather gets unusually warm before it gets cold again. We celebrate with a dance around a special pole, and then I get chosen False Spring Queen! | ” |
False Spring is a natural phenomenon that occurs in the Mortmain Mountains every autumn/winter. It is typically treated as a holiday celebrated by the Snow Scouts in A Series of Unfortunate Events.
Description
False Spring is an annual occurrence where the temperatures gets unusually warm in the Mortmain Mountains before it becomes frigid once more. Due to this, the ice covering the waterfall at the top of Mount Fraught turns thin. If pierced enough times, it threatens to crack open.[1]
Traditions
Every year, the Snow Scouts hike up Mount Fraught until they reach the peak where the source of the Stricken Stream is located. There, they hold a coronation that involves one member is elected False Spring Queen, officially coronated when the other scouts perform a "fancy" dance, where they spin around the spring pole. (In the Netflix series, Brucie claims that False Spring Queen is usually a democratically elected position.[2])
Carmelita Spats is usually (probably always) crowned queen, because the scout leader, Bruce, is her biological uncle coupled with the fact she was too spoiled to be a good sport. The Snow Scouts make this trip up Mount Fraught annually, though it is unknown if the tradition continued after the Man with a Beard but No Hair and Woman with Hair but No Beard used the celebration to their advantage and kidnapped the scouts.
Esmé Squalor requested a fancy False Spring dinner to celebrate, therefore, she and Count Olaf forced Sunny Baudelaire to prepare False Spring Rolls, an assortment of vegetables wrapped in spinach leaves, and included mushrooms and water chestnuts.[1]
Participants
Books
- Snow Scouts
- Bruce (scoutleader)
- Carmelita Spats (False Spring Queen)
- Quigley Quagmire (temporarily)
- Unnamed member(s) of the Winnipeg Royal Family
- Count Olaf (mentions False Spring)
- Esmé Squalor (mentions False Spring)
- Sunny Baudelaire (prepared False Spring rolls)
- Count Olaf's troupe
Netflix Series
- Brucie (scoutleader)
- Carmelita Spats (False Spring Queen)
- Esmé Squalor (former False Spring Queen)[3]
- Quigley Quagmire (temporarily)
- Snow Scout #1
- Snow Scout #2
- Snow Scout #3
- Snow Scout #4
- Snow Scout #5
- Snow Scout #6
- Snow Scout #7
- Nervous Scout (carries the Springpole)
Trivia
- In the Netflix series, Esmé Squalor claims that she was False Spring Queen when she was fourteen, which is how she discovered her love of Pole Dancing.[3]
Appearances