Author Archives: f000z5d

Harassing The Freshman At The Bonfire

Title: Harassing The Freshman At The Bonfire

General Information about Item:

Customary Folklore, Tradition
English
USA

Informant Data:

The informant was a male Sophomore at Dartmouth who has experienced the bonfire two times. He has experienced it both as a freshman and as an upperclassman, which are two vastly different experiences.

Contextual Data:

As already collected, there is an annual ritual at Dartmouth for freshmen to run laps around the homecoming fire. This practice is encouraged and is widely participated in. The upperclassmen, though, also have a role in this ritual. Most upperclassmen, at least during their sophomore year, revel for this opportunity to be on the other side of this ritual. Enthusiasm seems to die out as the students grow older.

Item:

“During the ritual of the freshmen running around the fire, the upperclassmen gather around the barriers and attempt to confuse and harass the freshmen. They try to confuse them by yelling things such as “Touch the fire!” or “You’re running in the wrong direction!”. Some upperclassmen even participate in the running while harassing the freshman. Apparently, back in the day, the harassing was much worse. It has become tamer and laid back since then.”

Informant’s Comments:

The informant said that he really enjoyed the tradition of running around the fire as a Freshman and was looking forward to being on the other side of it. Surprisingly, though, he said it wasn’t really as fun as he anticipated and actually left before the end of the running.

Collector’s Comments:

I agree with the informant’s opinion. The fire is a much bigger deal and much more fun as a Freshman. I think it gets less interesting as you get older at Dartmouth, but I think the tradition remains because upperclassmen feel some sort of obligation to attend.

Collector’s Name: Devan Birch

Tags/Keywords:

Customary Folklore, tradition, homecoming, freshman

Touching The Homecoming Fire

Title: Touching The Homecoming Fire

General Information about Item:

Customary Folklore, Tradition
English
USA

Informant Data:

The informant was an anonymous male Dartmouth Junior who has actually participated in this ritual. Age: 20. He is one of the very few people on campus that participated in the ritual during their freshman year.

Contextual Data:

As already collected, there is an annual ritual at Dartmouth for freshmen to run laps around the homecoming fire. This practice is encouraged and is widely participated in. This ritual, though, is rare and does not happen often. Maybe 1 or 2 freshmen a year participate in it. It is not necessarily encouraged, but more so accepted. It is encouraged somewhat throughout the freshman class alone in an attempt to have a member participate in it. But, the administration and security take steps to attempt to discourage this ritual greatly.

Item:

“Every year before the homecoming fire, upperclassmen constantly tell the freshmen to touch the fire. They claim that somebody has done it every year. They attempt to scare the freshmen by telling them that they will be the ‘worst class ever’ if nobody does it. Obviously, nobody wants to be the worst class ever. So it ends up happening every year as 1 or 2 people end up taking it into their own hands to touch the fire. Touching the fire usually ends up in some sort of arrest or punishment, since you have to dodge SNS and Hanover Police officers to even get close to the fire. But it’s always worth it because you can always say that you’re the one that touched the fire.”

Informant’s Comments:

The informant was actually arrested for doing this. He says he does not regret participating in this ritual. In fact, he was proud of it.

Collector’s Comments:

I found it interesting that people actually get arrested for this. It seems also that they know that is a possibility going into it. For a tradition with such harsh punishment, it is surprising that it has lived on.

Collector’s Name: Devan Birch

Tags/Keywords:

Customary Folklore, tradition, homecoming, freshman

Running Laps Around the Homecoming Fire

Title: Running Laps Around the Homecoming Fire

General Information about Item:

Customary Folklore, Tradition

English

USA

Informant Data:

Anonymous Male Dartmouth student in the Class of 2020. Age: 19. He is a part of the grade that just participated in this ritual within the past month.

Contextual Data:

Annual ritual at Homecoming that all Dartmouth Freshmen are encouraged to participate in. The origins of this ritual are uncertain. An experience that is almost a rite of passage for a Dartmouth student. This is sort of seen as the last transition into becoming a full member of the Dartmouth community. The ritual takes place at the location of the Bonfire, which is a Dartmouth tradition to build every year on the Green, which is the large open field in the center of town.

Item:

“Every year at the Homecoming fire, there is a circular section cordoned off for Dartmouth freshmen to run laps around the fire. Tradition says that students are supposed to run 100 laps plus whatever their class year is. For example, the class of 2020 should theoretically run 120 laps. Overtime, this tradition has evolved into running as many laps as your class year. So instead of 120, the class of 2020 would run only 20 laps. Upperclassmen and Alumni are congregated around the fire outside of the cordoned off area while yelling and cheering the freshmen on. This tradition is open to anyone, but it is primarily practiced by only freshmen.”

Informant’s Comments:

He was interested in knowing the origins and evolutions of the tradition. He felt that it was interesting that the history of the tradition is never really explained to the Freshmen, they are just expected to participate in the tradition because every one else does.

Collector’s Comments:

Informant brought up a very intriguing point regarding the unknown history surrounding this tradition. As a Dartmouth Senior, I couldn’t even lead him in a direction to find out that history. It’s interesting that for such a common, well known, and heavily participated in tradition that no one really knows the origins behind it.

Collector’s Name: Devan Birch

Tags/Keywords:

Customary Folklore, Tradition, Freshmen, Homecoming