General Information about Item:

• Ritual
• Language: English
• Country of Origin: United States
• Informant: SM
• Date Collected: 10/20/21

Informant Data:

• SM is a Dartmouth class of 2021 who is currently in his fifth year at Dartmouth. He has been on the cross country and track teams at Dartmouth for all five years and this year, he is captain of the men’s cross country team.

Contextual Data:

• Cultural Context: The men’s and women’s cross country teams at Dartmouth are extremely close and do almost everything together. However, the one thing the teams don’t do together is run because the teams have different coaches and run at different speeds, so the teams split by gender for actual practice. This event is one of the few times each year that the men’s and women’s teams run together. Additionally, Dartmouth is one of eight colleges that are grouped together as the Ivy League. These teams are all located in the eastern U.S. and often compete both in academics and athletics. They created an athletic conference and the biggest competition each season for many sports is the Heptagonal Championships, or HEPS for short. This is called the heptagonal championships because there used to be only seven teams in the Ivy League and although some schools left and some schools joined to create a total of eight teams, the name stuck. This race is the only one all year where only all eight teams come together to race and it is a very important race for all of these teams. Lastly, “flair” is a term at Dartmouth used to describe funny clothes and costumes that people dress up in for fun events. It is common to see people wearing funny costumes any day around the college campus.

• Social Context: This tradition is a fun one that brings both the mens and womens cross country teams at Dartmouth together before the biggest race of the season. It is a fun way to let the campus know about the upcoming event, especially when the teams run to ask the president of the college if he will attend. Additionally, it builds excitement within the team with a fun, silly, easy run and reminds everyone on the team why they love running and why they love to be a part of Dartmouth cross country.

Item:

• The week before the ivy league championships (HEPS) race, the men’s and women’s cross country teams dress up in flair and run together around campus. The teams run through the library and show up at President Hanlon (the president of the college)’s house to ask if he will come watch the race the following weekend. This run is called Hepsoween and is a combination of the name of the race (HEPS) and the upcoming holiday (Halloween), and this combination also explains the funny costumes that the team wears during this run.

Associated file (a video, audio, or image file):

Transcript:

AB: Ok so do you want to just say your name for us and give me a little bit of background about who you are?

SM: Yep, um, so I am SM. I am a ‘21, 5th year here on the team and also the captain of the men’s cross country team.

AB: Perfect! Um, and then do you want to give me a piece of folklore about the men’s cross country and track teams?

SM: Yeah, one thing that comes to mind is hepsoween, um, which is basically a run where the men’s and women’s cross country teams get together and wear flair. They run through the library, they show up at Presiden Hanlon’s office and make him come out and ask him if he is coming to HEPS, which he never is, um, and yeah it’s right before HEPS and I guess, kind of a reason that it’s such a big deal is because, one, it kind of gets people excited for HEPS. It’s like right before, um, right around Halloween, which explains the costumes and flair and um, this team is kind of steeped in tradition and that kinda just, you know, kinda adds to the list of traditions that this team does and what gets people excited about being part of Dartmouth cross country.

AB: Perfect thank you!

Informant’s Comments:

• Though the teams go to the president’s office every year, and he always tells the teams good luck, he never agrees to come watch the ivy league championship races. However, it is still always a fun tradition to send in two of the freshmen, one guy and one girl, to ask him if he will be in attendance.

Collector’s Comments:

• This is probably my favorite cross country team tradition! The energy on the run is so fun and although I can get stressed leading up to such a big race, having this fun event to look forward to allows me to relax a bit and remember why I love being on this team!
• This is a piece of customary folklore because it involves many actions that the men’s and women’s cross country teams do together, such as running through the library, though it has a bit of verbal folklore when every year, the teams ask the same question to the president of the college.

Collector’s Name: Abby Brazil