- Freshmen Sweep
- Informant Data: Monique Walters is an 18-year-old, female, freshman student who attends Dartmouth College. She was born in Long Island, New York, and she now resides in Hanover, New Hampshire during the school year.
- Type of lore: Customary; Genre: Ritual
- Language: English
- Country of Origin: US
- Contextual Data: Monique Walters attends Dartmouth College, and was part of the freshman sweep herself her freshman year.
- Item: Every year during homecoming, the first year students are swept up from their dorms by upperclassmen and brought to the bonfire on the Green as a complete class. The freshmen sweep moves dorm to dorm in a predetermined route.
- Informant’s comments: It is a fun ritual.
- Collector’s comments: Dartmouth students want to encourage the first year students’ participation in the ritual as much as possible. This is one way to ensure they show up and continue the rituals. This ritual also is another bonding experience for all the classes. While the freshmen are being swept up, the alumni walk around The Green with banners that have their class year on it and upperclassmen surround the bonfire awaiting the first year students. Freshman walk over feeling as if this community is strange, and once they are incorporated through the bonfire ritual then they can join the Dartmouth community.
- Ritual, freshmen sweep, bonfire
Freshmen Sweep
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