By CASEY AYLWARDThe Dartmouth Staff
From the moment Dartmouth students arrive on campus, they join a community rich with traditions. Some Dartmouth traditions such as the bells of Baker Tower chiming the tune of the Alma Mater every evening at 6 p.m. are observed on a daily basis, but many of the College's most celebrated and famous traditions correspond with the "big weekend" of each term.
Freshmen participate in their first College tradition almost immediately after arriving by heading out on the Dartmouth Outing Club's First-Year Trips.
Freshmen are unofficially initiated into the greater Dartmouth student body over Homecoming weekend in October when they run around the traditional bonfire the same number of times as their class year for '15s, 115 times. Upperclassmen surround the running freshmen and jokingly taunt their new peers with phrases such as "worst class ever" and "touch the fire." Although the majority of freshmen who run around the bonfire ignore this last request, a handful of freshmen try, often unsuccessfully, to break through the barriers of caution tape and Safety and Security officers in order to touch the blaze. The Homecoming bonfire occurs the night before the football team's Homecoming game each year.
Similarly, rebellious freshmen may also try to "rush the field" during the Homecoming football game. At halftime, a few freshmen attempt to sprint across the field to the visitor section, usually to be caught and arrested by Hanover Police. Freshmen usually undertake these efforts in hopes of attaining the title of "best class ever," which is endowed to the class with the most students who successfully rush the field.
While running laps around the bonfire only takes a few hours, constructing the bonfire takes a significant amount of time. Students from the Thayer School of Engineering design the 62-tier structure that consists of square-cut, non-treated lumber structure for optimal safety. When the first bonfire ignited in 1888, students piled fence posts and old chairs. Now, freshmen decorate the lumber with personalized messages, such as names of their residence halls or sports teams.
Previously, freshmen have constantly guarded the bonfire to protect against upperclassmen's attempts to sabotage the structure. This former tradition met its end in 1992 after 600 students, wielding baseball bats and hockey sticks, stormed the bonfire. Following the riot, the College instituted strict surveillance of the bonfire area which is located in the center of the Green both during construction and after the bonfire is finally lit.
To substitute for the lost tradition of sabotage, the College instituted the "freshman sweep" the gathering of the entire freshmen class before a mass migration to the bonfire. The parade continues onto the streets of Hanover, where many locals and alumni who have returned for the weekend cheer on the freshmen before they finish their walk on the Green.
During Winter term, Winter Carnival celebrates New Hampshire's outdoors, embracing the freezing temperatures and layers of snow on the ground. Students are invited to participate in outdoor activities such as 99-cent ski day at the Dartmouth Skiway and the Polar Bear Swim, in which students plunge into a hole cut into the ice of a frozen Occom Pond. Dartmouth's Carnival has been famously described as the "Mardi Gras of the North."
Fifteen years after Winter Carnival's inception in 1910, students began to construct snow sculptures on the lawns of their fraternities, in front of their residence halls and in the center of the Green. Over time, this activity evolved into the current tradition, the construction of a singular large ice sculpture in the middle of the Green that matches the theme for each year's Winter Carnival. In past years, sculpture designs have ranged from a pirate ship to a replica of the Roman Colosseum to Dr. Seuss's Cat in the Hat. In 1987, students built a 47.5-foot-tall snowman, which won the Guinness World Record for the largest snowman ever constructed.
Last year, students reconstructed the first ice sculpture a castle in honor of the "Carnival of the Century" theme to celebrate Winter Carnival's centennial.
Green Key weekend, which occurs in the middle of Spring term, is another Dartmouth "big weekend." The tradition has changed since its inception at the turn of the 20th century, when it was a spring festival with dinners, teas and a formal ball. The weekend provides another opportunity for alumni to return to campus and gives students a much-needed break from schoolwork.
Students now spend the weekend basking in the sun, eating barbecue and attending concerts and parties. For the traditional Block Party, hosted by Phi Delta Alpha fraternity, students flood Webster Avenue to mingle with friends and to watch bands perform live.
While a year at Dartmouth provides students with three pre-planned weekends to celebrate College tradition, rising sophomores experience an extended 10-week long tradition that many Dartmouth students cite as their favorite term "sophomore Summer." During Summer term, when sophomores are required to take classes on campus, the sunny weather encourages students to enjoy the surrounding outdoors by swimming in the Connecticut River or hiking with friends in the surrounding White Mountains.
In the past, Summer term was marked by Tubestock a day that students spent swimming and floating on makeshift rafts on the Connecticut River. In 2006, however, the New Hampshire state legislature passed a law banning congregation on state waterways without a permit.
To replace Tubestock, the College created Fieldstock, a weekend of chariot races on the Green, barbecues hosted by Greek organizations and other outdoor activities. Only entering its sixth year, Fieldstock is a relatively new Dartmouth tradition and its overall popularity and longevity remains to be seen.
