Tag Archives: homecoming

Running Around the Bonfire (Homecoming Weekend)

General Information:
Title: Running Around the Bonfire
Form of Folklore: Customary, bonfire festival
Language: English
Place of Origin: Hanover, NH, United States
Informant: H.A.
Date Collected: November 1st, 2021

Informant Data: 
H.A. is a 21-year-old member of the Dartmouth class of 2022. He studies neuroscience and wants to be on the cutting edge of mental health research, eventually pursuing a PhD. He was born in San Francisco, but moved to Washington DC in 2004. At Dartmouth, H.A. is the co-founder of the recently approved Dartmouth Undergraduate Psychedelic Society, and otherwise pursues neuroscience research with mice. In his free-time, H.A. enjoys reading scientific articles, listening to scientific podcasts, cooking, and spending time with friends. 

Contextual Data: 
Social Context: Every term Dartmouth has a ‘big weekend’ of celebrations, and in the fall this is ‘Homecoming Weekend’. While many instantiations of traditions are aimed at the freshmen during this weekend, the whole weekend stands as a yearly tradition for all students and a lot of alumni who will come back and visit for the weekend. The weekend features Dartmouth’s football team playing the ‘homecoming game’, and the school organizes parades, speeches, and a large bonfire that all alumni and students gather around. The bonfire itself is used as part of a freshman-specific tradition every year, where the freshmen class walks a lap around the fire in front of the audience. It is the first ‘big weekend’ that freshmen get to experience, and because they typically hear a lot about it from upperclassmen they often look very forward to it.
Cultural Context: The bonfire, specifically, features a freshman specific tradition where the whole class walks a lap around the bonfire. Typically, they are heckled by upperclassmen who are watching the bonfire lap, and these upperclassmen were again heckled by their seniors when they were freshmen. Notably, Henry is a member of the class of 2022, the first class to participate in this tradition after Dartmouth updated the safety restrictions surrounding the event. The class of 2022 was the first class who was prohibited from running their lap around the fire and were instructed to only walk one lap. Past classes were both allowed to run around the fire, and they ran the same number of laps as their class year. The bonfire lap is a once-in-a-Dartmouth-career experience, and because all students have participated once it stands as a well cemented and anticipated tradition every year. 

Item: 
The homecoming bonfire is organized by the College, and it is built in the middle of the Dartmouth Green. The wooden panels are decorated by various student organizations, who send their freshmen members to paint a panel. The top of the wooden structure is decorated by wooden numerals of the graduating year of the freshmen. Surrounding the bonfire is a large audience of current students and alumni. While the fire burns on the Friday of homecoming, the freshman walk a lap around the fire and are heckled by upperclassmen. Various traditional heckles are yelled, like “you are the worst class ever” and “touch the fire”. The latter emerged a few years ago, when the school took strict action to ensure that students didn’t run close to the fire. 

Associated File:

Image courtesy of Dartmouth, the Dartmouth Review

Transcript: 
Collector: “What is your attitude towards Homecoming Weekend and the Bonfire tradition?” 

Informant: “I really enjoyed the bonfire tradition and generally thought it was a lot of fun. But I had heard a lot about the bonfire tradition from upperclassmen and I learned that we [the class of 2022] were the first class who only were allowed to walk one lap around the bonfire, instead of the traditional running the number of laps of your class year which all the students before us had done. I learned the school implemented this measure for safety reasons, but it sucked having to be the first class to experience it. It felt like a rupture in the lineage of Dartmouth student experiences that is passed down from one class to the next. To be on the other edge of that tradition break was an odd position and I was left always wondering what it would be like to run 22 laps and what I missed out on. I felt that I was getting a different experience than all the students who preceded me and had gotten the Dartmouth experience.”

Collector Comment:
As a fellow class of 2022, I felt very similarly about being the first class ever to only walk one lap around the bonfire. I remember a lot of upperclassmen commenting on how we were ‘missing out’ and ‘not getting the real experience’, and it made me feel slightly isolated from the Dartmouth experience, especially as this was my first term at Dartmouth.

Collected By:
Una Westvold
Oslo, Norway
Hanover, NH
Dartmouth College
RUSS 013
Fall 2021

Bonfire (Homecoming Weekend)

General Information:
Title: Homecoming Bonfire
Form of Folklore: Customary, bonfire festival
Language: English
Place of Origin: Hanover, NH, United States
Informant: M.S.
Date Collected: October 30th, 2021

Informant Data: 
M.S. is a 19-year-old member of the Dartmouth class of 2025, the most recent class at Dartmouth. She is currently undecided on her major but wants to potentially study economics. She is from New York City and very excited to have moved to the more slow environment of New Hampshire. She enjoys to ski and is part of the apprenti class that is trying out for the Dartmouth Ski Patrol.

Contextual Data: 
Social Context: Every term Dartmouth has a ‘big weekend’ of celebrations, and in the fall this is ‘Homecoming Weekend’. While many instantiations of traditions are aimed at the freshmen during this weekend, the whole weekend stands as a yearly tradition for all students and a lot of alumni who will come back and visit for the weekend. The weekend features Dartmouth’s football team playing the ‘homecoming game’, and the school organizes parades, speeches, and a large bonfire that all alumni and students gather around. The bonfire is used as part of a freshman-specific tradition every year. It is the first ‘big weekend’ that freshmen get to experience, and because they typically hear a lot about it from upperclassmen they often look very forward to it.
Cultural Context: The bonfire, specifically, features a freshman specific tradition where the whole class walks a lap around the bonfire. Typically, they are heckled by upperclassmen who are watching the bonfire lap, and these upperclassmen were again heckled by their seniors when they were freshmen. The bonfire lap is a once-in-a-Dartmouth-career experience, and because all students have participated once it stands as a well cemented and anticipated tradition every year. 

Item: 
The homecoming bonfire is organized by the College, and it is built in the middle of the Dartmouth Green. The wooden panels are decorated by various student organizations, who send their freshmen members to paint a panel. The top of the wooden structure is decorated by wooden numerals of the graduating year of the freshmen. Surrounding the bonfire is a large audience of current students and alumni. While the fire burns on the Friday of homecoming, the freshman walk a lap around the fire and are heckled by upperclassmen. Various traditional heckles are yelled, like “you are the worst class ever” and “touch the fire”. The latter emerged a few years ago, when the school took strict action to ensure that students didn’t run close to the fire. 

Associated File:

Image courtesy of Dartmouth, the Dartmouth Review

Transcript: 
Collector: “Why did you take part in traditions such as the Homecoming Bonfire?” 

Informant: “I think it just makes me feel more part of the community. Also it’s very fun. Like the bonfire, a lot of my friends were joking that it’s like an initiation into the Dartmouth cult. And it kind of felt like that, it was fun. It’s like, I did it now. I’m part of that community that walks around the bonfire. Also, growing up in the city I didn’t have a football team or any homecoming big experience like a lot of my friends here did. I was just super excited to go to a football game for a school, my school, and it was just a cool way to show school pride. And the bonfire added to that, making the whole homecoming weekend into a big and special event.”

Collector Comment:
Reflecting on my own homecoming bonfire experience, I felt very similar to M.S. I felt that I had participated in an event that all students before me had as well, welcoming me into the community. Like M.S., I had never attended a school with a football team or any homecoming traditions, and the bonfire made the whole weekend feel even more special and community-oriented, beyond just school spirit for the football team. 

Collected By:
Una Westvold
Oslo, Norway
Hanover, NH
Dartmouth College
RUSS 013
Fall 2021

Returning as Alumni

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.

“Touch the Fire”

General Information

Informant: KF

Place: Dartmouth College

Date: October 9th, 2021

Form of folklore: Customary, ritual

Title: Touch the fire” & “Worst Class Ever”

Collector: Maria Angelino

Informant Data

The informant is a female Dartmouth student-athlete in the class of 2023. She was born in California and has two younger siblings, but spends a majority of the year at school in Hanover, NH. She is a student-athlete on the pre-med track and is not affiliated with the Greek Life system. 

Contextual Data

Social Data:  Every term at Dartmouth has one big weekend of celebration, and in the fall this is “Homecoming” weekend for the incoming freshman and alumni. There are parades, speeches, and a large bonfire that the freshman class walks around. While the freshmen walk around the fire, the upperclassmen yell at them and tell them to “touch the fire”. This is one of the most well known traditions at Dartmouth that all students and alumni look forward to. At the time the folklore was collected, the informant was a junior and recorded her teammates as they passed by. A follow up interview was then conducted.

Contextual 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. 

Item

The upperclassman taunt the freshman walking around the fire and tell them to “touch the fire”.  

Transcript: 

Collector: “Why do (or don’t) you take part in traditions such as the homecoming bonfire?”

Informant: “I love to participate in all of the homecoming events. I think the whole thing is kinda odd, but I love that about Dartmouth in general. I remember when I was a freshman and had to walk around the fire. I thought it was so weird and it kinda felt like we were in a cult, but it made me feel like Dartmouth was really my new home. I was so happy to be a part of a place where everyone was so supportive and excited to be here. My teammates and I walked around the fire while people yelled at us that we were “the worst class ever” and “touch the fire”, but it was pretty funny. We just embraced it and cheered back at them. So this year when our freshman were walking, the upperclassmen and I did the same thing to them, and they also just cheered back at us.”

Collector Comment

The bonfire tradition represents a form of the rites of passage experienced by the freshman at Dartmouth. They are separated from the rest of the classes when they walk around the fire, and the transition period happens as the upperclassmen taunt them. It is similar to a task or hazing- when the freshman completes the lap and can handle being called the “worst class ever”, they can finally be incorporated into the community of Dartmouth students.

Homecoming Bonfire

General Information:
Informant: SH
Place: Hanover, NH
Date: October 9, 2021
Genre/Form of folklore: Customary/Ritual
Title: “Bonfire”

Informant Data: SH is an 18-year-old Dartmouth student who is a part of the class of 2025. He is from Washington State, but he lives on campus at Dartmouth in Hanover, NH for most of the year. He is a student-athlete participating on the football team and has an interest in studying economics.

Contextual Data: Every term at Dartmouth has one big weekend of celebration, and in the fall this is “Homecoming” weekend for the incoming freshman and alumni. There are parades, speeches, and a large bonfire that the freshman class walks around. While the freshmen walk around the fire, the upperclassmen yell at them and tell them to “touch the fire”. This is one of the most well-known traditions at Dartmouth that all students and alumni look forward to.

Social Data: The bonfire is a massive fire set on the green and designed to be run (or walked) around by the freshman class. Since it is during homecoming weekend, most of the campus plus many alumni surround the fire while the freshmen go around. The fire has the numbers of the graduating year of the freshmen class (24 and 25 this year because of COVID).

Item: The massive fire annually set on Dartmouth’s campus on The Green. 

Transcript
Collector: “What is your attitude towards Homecoming Weekend and the Bonfire tradition?”

Informant: “Homecoming was pretty cool. The fire was massive and I enjoyed feeling the heat from across the green. I did not expect it to be as large as it was. I appreciated that our class was able to make a lot of fun memories together.”

Collector Comment:
Homecoming weekend in general is a great tradition at Dartmouth. It is super cool to see all of the alumni come back and celebrate at the football game, bonfire, around campus, in their former frats/sororities, etc. Dartmouth alumni seem especially drawn to the campus after they graduate, and it is clear that homecoming weekend is a wonderful example of this.


Collected by:

Ross Parrish 20

Cincinnati, OH

Hanover, NH

Dartmouth College

RUSS 013

Fall 2021

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

Stinson Keg Transport Tradition

Title: Stinson Keg Transport Tradition

Informant info: Jack Stinson was born and raised in Hanover, NH. He runs his family’s beer store Stinson’s Village.

Type of lore: Customary, tradition

Language: English

Country of Origin: United States

Social / Cultural Context: Jack Stinson was interviewed inside his store.  He has experienced the revelries associated with Homecoming for the last few decades.

Item: There used to be a tradition of hiring football and hockey players to transport kegs for Jack during homecoming weekend. Jack would pay these athletes, and they would bring the heavy kegs to the Greek houses for their parties during homecoming. This tradition ended with new college restrictions on kegs.

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

Transcript (if verbal lore): N/A

Informant’s comments: Jack also recounted how the evolution of kegs to cans has occurred at Dartmouth. He told us about how the rate of alcohol consumption on campus has dropped with the evolution of cans.

Collector’s comments: The informant seems to remember the story very fondly.

Tags/Keywords: homecoming, kegs, drinking, stinsons

Swim Team Wearing Swimsuits

Title: Swim Team Wearing Swimsuits

Informant info: Cody Pennypacker is a member of the Class of 2018 at Dartmouth college. He is a Biology major.

Type of lore: customary, Genre: ritual

Language: English

Country of Origin: United States

Social / Cultural Context: Homecoming is a major events not just to students, but to athletic teams as well.

Item: The swim team freshmen will run around the bonfire in just their swimsuits.

Associated file: See interview file

Transcript: (Beginning is somewhat garbled) -There was a kid who thought it was a good idea to have like, a handle of vodka on him when he touched the fire. Also…(pause), yeah, so apparently, uhm, I’m not on either of the teams, but uh, when the freshmen run the laps around the fire…uh, apparently the swim team has to run in their swim suits the whole way, and the track team runs all the laps that they have to do (garbled)…2018, so 118 laps around the fire, which comes out to be a lot of miles around this hot burning campfire in the middle of the night.

Informant’s comments: This is somewhat of an initiation for the members of this team. Everyone has done it and so they must do it.

Collector’s comments: We believe other teams require similar tasks.

Tags/Keywords: Swim team, Swim suits, bonfire, homecoming

Initiation, Laps, Homecoming, Bonfire,