General Information
Informant: The informant is a Dartmouth graduate from the 2020 class and wishes to stay completely anonymous.
Place: Hanover, NH
Date: October 19th, 2021
Form of Folklore: Tradition
Title: Returning as Alumni
Collector: Maria Angelino
Contextual Data
Cultural Data: Dartmouth was founded in 1769 and is one of the nine colonial colleges charted before the American revolution. Located in Hanover, New Hampshire, Dartmouth is a small, private liberal arts school and is a part of eight Ivy League institutions in the United States. The school is best known for its focus on undergraduate degrees, strong Greek life culture, and supportive alumni base.
Social Data: Homecoming weekend is an important weekend in the Fall term at Dartmouth College for both the freshman class and alumni. With so much activity going on, former students find this weekend to be a great opportunity to come back to campus and relive their “glory days”. This folklore was conducted via an interview a week after the informant went to her first homecoming weekend as an alumni, not a student.
Item:
Alumni coming back to Dartmouth on Homecoming Weekend.
Transcript:
Collector: “What do you know about the origins of the bonfire tradition?”
Informant: “ I don’t know much about how the whole thing started. I remember hearing about how the fire used to be way bigger and the classes would run, instead of walk, around the fire. I do know that it was always a time for a lot of alumni to come back because they warned us our freshman year to lock our dorms. They said alumni would try to come into their old rooms just to see what they look like now and reminisce on the good old days. I thought it was just another weird prank our UGA was pulling on us, but there were actually a ton of alumni that came back Homecoming Weekend when I was a student. This year was kind of weird for me because I experienced it as an alumni. It was crazy coming back and feeling like I was just another Dartmouth kid again. I love the adult life, but my four years here were the best years of my life. Coming back and seeing old friends reminded me of all the great memories and friendships I made. I definitely plan on coming back on Homecoming Weekend whenever I can.”
Collector Comment
This aspect of Homecoming Weekend often gets overlooked by the students because of the focus on the Bonfire and other events. The return of alumni speaks to the multiple existence and variation of Homecoming Weekend as students who graduate continue being apart of Dartmouth’s culture after graduation.