Students at Scotland’s University of St Andrews took part in an unusual annual tradition this week, turning a campus lawn into a shaving-foam fight. Dressed as sunflowers, Smurfs and other quirky characters, hundreds of students gathered for Raisin Monday, a centuries-old university ritual.
First-year students traditionally thanked older students who guided them through their first weeks at university by giving them a pound of raisins, which explains the name Raisin Monday. Another student, Simon, summed up the bonding experience by asking, “When you are covering each other in shaving foam, how much more bonded can you get? The university’s tradition is not the only unusual student ritual in Scotland and England. At Merton College, Oxford, students walk backwards around Fellows’ Quadrangle when the clocks go back in October. At the University of Aberdeen, students carry the incoming rector around campus on a stuffed bull.
The tradition at the University of St Andrews dates back around 600 years. On Monday, students gathered on St Salvator’s lower college lawn at 11am, armed with cans of shaving foam and dressed in colourful costumes. (Also Read: 16-year-old student in Malaysia arrested after live-streaming alleged axe attack on teacher in class ) Freya, a first-year student whose group dressed as periodic table elements, told The Guardian that traditions like these are increasingly important when people spend less time connecting face to face.
She said the event helps bring everyone together. Deborah, an American medical student, told The Guardian that the university’s size makes such gatherings possible and helps create a sense of community. Over time, the custom transformed into the shaving-foam spectacle seen today.
