School with Traditions

<p>Hey everyone! I was wondering about schools with long lasting, or special traditions that the students, alummi, and faculty all enjoy. Any thoughts?</p>

<p>Andover has Head of School Day - if I'm not mistaken, the Head of School comes in somewhere (is it Commons [dining hall]? Someone help me out) with her field hockey stick, and students get the next day off. It happens sometime in the winter trimester. Not to mention the Andover/Exeter athletic matches, including the big football game.</p>

<p>I believe Deerfield also has a Choate day, when athletic contests between the two take place. Of course, most of the schools have annual athletic contests with their rivals.</p>

<p>Here are some of the traditions at Blair:</p>

<p>Society of Skeptics <a href="http://www.blair.edu/events/ev_skeptics_highlights.shtm%5B/url%5D"&gt;http://www.blair.edu/events/ev_skeptics_highlights.shtm&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p>

<p>Peddie Day <a href="http://www.blair.edu/athletics/ath_blair_peddie_rivalry.shtm%5B/url%5D"&gt;http://www.blair.edu/athletics/ath_blair_peddie_rivalry.shtm&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p>

<p>Headmasters Society Competition <a href="http://www.blair.edu/News_Events/2005_2006/news_ev_headmasters_week06.shtm%5B/url%5D"&gt;http://www.blair.edu/News_Events/2005_2006/news_ev_headmasters_week06.shtm&lt;/a> . One of these days becomes a day off from school as declared by the Headmaster.</p>

<p>There are more.</p>

<p>At Westover there are a lot of traditions, which is pretty common at girls' schools. My sister goes to Emma Willard, and they have a ton there too. I can't really describe any of ours over the internet, but here is a list of the names, chronologically.</p>

<p>First week: New Girl Camp, Rallying, Durge
Fall: AA Germans
Winter: Dorcas, Candlelight, Dorcas Germans
Spring: Germans, Orchard, Lantern, ST, Elections, Ring Ceremony
Year-round: TT, Senior X, Spirit Week (how original), sitdown dinner</p>

<p>There are more, but that's a list of the big ones. There are also a few secret societies that mostly pull pranks.</p>

<p>We also have to wear our "unis" which are the old uniforms the girls here had to wear every day. Everyone gets a uni custom made when they enter the school. They're mostly worn at the various Germans, sometimes at sitdown dinner for underclassmen, and during all three days of candlelight. We don't wear them to class or anything.</p>

<p>I hope this helps you! I really love the traditions; it's a big part of why I applied to the school.</p>

<p>Thanks to all, especially iriseyes. I'm primarily interested in girls schools, especially those deep in traditions. Do you go to Chatham Hall?</p>

<p>NMH has several traditions. One of my favorite is the official start of the school year at Opening Convocation. The sheriff of Franklin County is in attendance and is in period dress (1850's). At the appropriate time (I think after a traditional speech entitled the "Spade Oration") he stands and bangs a staff on the floor three times (the students stomp their feet in unison). He then announces something to the effect of "I hereby declare school officially open".
There is also a founder's day and a dance that evening, "Dwight Night", named after the school's founder, Dwight (D.L.) Moody.
Another longstanding tradition is "Mountain Day". Everyone knows mountain day is coming because chili is served at dinner the night before. The following day, there are no classes and everyone climbs Mt. Monadnock.
The concert of Sacred Music in May and Christmas Vespers are wonderful musical traditions.</p>

<p>Huh. Cool! What exactly is NMH?</p>

<p>Northfield Mount Hermon. Sorry, not an oft-mentioned school on this board.</p>

<p>Ya know I like tradition as much as the next
guy but there has not been one tradition
i have heard of that did not make
me laugh at the whole notion and social
conformity involved here..because some guy
passed gas in 1881 everyone gets together
for a big Bronx cheer in the common area
and then gos for a "feed" lol..
sour grapes? nah flatulance..
I have realized that BS phenom
fits many of the criterion for cults..</p>

<p>Bitter, much? o_O</p>

<p>I like some of ours, especially the germans and rallying.</p>

<p>I really hope that I can go to Emma Willard so what are the traditions there?</p>

<p>At Midland, instead of the kids going home for Thanksgiving all the families and alumni come to Midland. They have a ton of athletic games (alumni vs. students/faculty vs. alumni, etc), the students who play instruments perform, the students put on a play and the school prepares a big thanksgiving dinner that is eaten outside. many of the families camp outside on campus grounds.</p>

<p>Exeter has a lot of them which are secret.</p>

<p>Emma has a lot of traditions, most of which are secret.</p>

<p>I can't say Choate's traditions are secret.</p>

<p>But Yale's are. :D</p>

<p>Hey! Well I just graduated from the Webb School in Bell Buckle, TN. The whole school thrives on its traditions! It was founded in 1870 by Sawney Webb and we are constantly reminded of our school's history. A book was even written about our founder and our school (The Schoolmaker! check it out!). Probably the favorite tradition with ALL of the students is our "take the day" where our headmaster announces in chapel that we can have the day off! Its awesome, especially when you don't know when it is and school is getting to be really stressful! Webb has so many traditions, you just have to check them all out!</p>