Weird TraditionsTalking with a friend yesterday about school dinners, she suddenly said, "We had to march into the dining room behind the School Band... except on Thursdays." Since all of us were now staring, she qualified this with, "...on Thursdays there was no wind section. It was a tradition."
What weird stuff have you been made to do "because it's a tradition."
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chthonic, Thu 28 Jul 2005, 11:11)
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public school was rife with this kind of thing...... but possibly the wierdest and most impenetrable was on pancake day, when an event called the Greaze took place. Under the eyes of the Dean of Westminster Abbey in full ceremonial dress, and other dressed-up local worthies (local to the Palace of Westminster), boys from each house would compete for honour and glory for their house by scrapping over a horsehair pancake which would be tossed in their midst from a big iron frying pan.
An incredibly violent melee would ensue, and whoever was in possession of all their limbs and the largest portion of pancake by weight was the winner. Quite what they won escapes me, but the face of the Dean during the fight is burned on my memory forever - he looked like the whole thing gave off a very bad smell.
The other random bit of it was that after several deaths in the 17th and 18th centuries the school had special dispensation that if anyone died during the event that was ok. Which is nice.
The worst part is that most of those people I saw flailing around on the floor after a giant pancake are on their way to running the country now. This frightens me.
(, Thu 28 Jul 2005, 12:47, Reply)
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