Freshman Traditions
“The Worst Class Ever”
| C.B. Bangor, Maine Fall 2018 |
Informant Data:
CB was born in Casco, Maine in October of 1999, where he grew up and attended high school. He is currently finishing his freshman year at Dartmouth College, where he is a member of the class of 2022. He is undecided on his area of study, but is mostly interested in the areas of Government or History. Outside of class he enjoys volunteering with kids, playing frisbee on the Green, and spending time with friends.
Contextual Data:
Cultural Context:
Dartmouth College was founded in 1769 by Eleazar Wheelock and is the ninth-oldest institution in the United States. Dartmouth currently has 4,310 undergraduates. It is located in Hanover, New Hampshire. Dartmouth is known to be a small, research university that emphasizes a liberal arts curriculum to its students.
Social Context:
As a college that is over two centuries old, Dartmouth offers a distinct series of events that provide every new student with an iconic freshman year experience. Freshmen go through first-year outdoor trips, a matriculation ceremony, and more. The College on the Hill has unique traditions and rites of passage that welcome freshman into the Big Green community.
Item:
The most famous Dartmouth tradition is the Homecoming Bonfire. Members of the freshman class typically run the same number of laps around the fire as their class year, while upperclassmen stand at the exterior and encourage people to “touch the fire.” Popular tradition dictates that any year in which nobody touches the bonfire will be the “worst class ever.” However, due to safety concerns the practice was outlawed in the Fall of 2018. Students were only permitted to walk a single lap around the fire, under the threat that if anyone broke the rules or attempted to jump over the inner fence, the tradition would be ended forever.
Transcript:
SG: Can you describe what it was like going just once around the Bonfire?
CB: It was pretty grim to be honest. The event is so hyped up by everyone, but it felt like we completely missed out as a class.
SG: Did Homecoming as a whole still have the same impact?
CB: The weekend was still really fun. Especially going to the football game and stuff. It also meant we made it to the end of the Frat Ban, so everyone was excited to finally go out the following week. But I would definitely say the Bonfire part was the worst part of Homecoming for me. It was just a major disappointment.
SG: Is there any way it could have been better?
CB: I just wanted to run the laps. I don’t even care that much about touching the fire, like I would not have done it either way. But one sorry walk around it was not really worth it.
Collectors Comments:
The Homecoming Bonfire is probably the most popular rite of passage at Dartmouth. Even disregarding the tradition of “touching the fire,” students go through the complete stages of separation, transition, and incorporation. The are separated from the rest of the student body and alumni when they where their class shirts, parade through Hanover, and enter the inner circle around the fire. The laps around the fire is the period of transition. Once the event is over, they are fully incorporated into the broader Dartmouth community, because they have taken part in the even that everyone else has done. However, the Bonfire of 2018 did not carry out the ritual to completion. It was not to the extant of the unquiet dead, but many students felt unsatisfied and caught in between phases because their initiation to Dartmouth was not complete.
| Sam Gordon Dartmouth College Russian 13 Spring 2019 |