Scottish university’s annual tradition once involved giving out raisins but fancy dress and shaving cream now in vogue.
A Unique Tradition
Nobody at the University of St Andrews in Scotland seems to remember how Raisin Monday became a giant foam fight. For 600 years, first-year students have taken part in the ritual of thanking older students for mentoring them through their first few weeks of university life. Traditionally, freshers would give their elders a pound of raisins – hence the name.
This Monday, however, hundreds wore fancy dress as they streamed onto St Salvator’s lower college lawn at 11am, armed with cans of shaving foam, covering one another in soapy clouds as they have for the past few decades.
The Festivities
Groups of students dressed as Smurfs, mice, bananas, grandmas, sunflowers, and chefs participated in this annual rite of passage. The theme for each group is chosen by second- and third-year students, known as “mums” and “dads,” who have been matched with the first years. The proud “parents” stood on the edge of the lawn, screaming and waving to their “children.”
Within minutes, the smell of shaving foam filled the square as cans were emptied over other students. It quickly became impossible to distinguish between costumes.
““Traditions like this are much more important because people are less connected face to face than they were before. Getting to do something like this brings everyone together,” says Freya, a first-year whose group has been dressed as periodic table elements by their chemistry student parents.
Simon, who is part of the same family, adds: “When you are covering each other in shaving foam, how much more bonded can you get?”
