Jousters jousted and sword fighters whacked and stabbed at each other. The daylong festival included a market and a banquet-style feast where a king and queen and their knaves tore the meat from chicken legs with their teeth.

In the afternoon, marshals called "lay on," a command to signal the start of combat. Then the seventh-graders took turns swinging at lords and ladies of the Society for Creative Anachronism, a recreation group devoted to the study of European Middle Ages.

Denise Brady, a seventh-grade teacher at the K-8 school, says the medieval event has taken place at St. Cyprian for seven or eight years, and each year members of the SCA speak to her students about medieval times, clothing, practices and behavior.

Her students select a king, queen and court for the day and dress in period costume from head to ankle. Students opted for comfort and stuck to modern-day footwear such as Velcro-strapped Nikes and Skechers.

SCA members demonstrate jousting and discuss the use of armor. Then weapons--homemade by SCA members and designed with blunt and rounded edges for safety--are turned over to students.

The honor of fighting the volunteers from the SCA is given only to seventh-graders.

Surrounded by classmates and cheered on by other students in the school, they take turns swinging, jabbing and "killing" their opponents.

Some are timid, barely casting a breeze on their foe. Others are like D.J. Dela Cruz who boldly marched toward her challenger and walloped him across his helmeted head.