The Quirky Traditions We Love to Hate

St. Andrews. Where the traditions get whacky.  The home of golf, with its cobbled streets and plenty of coffee spots to procrastinate in, comes with its bizarre traditions. By reading week, you’ll have forgotten what normal feels like.  

Love it, hate it, or pretend you hate it while secretly loving it, there’s no avoiding Raisin Weekend.  ‘Academic Parents’ adopt clueless freshers and, instead of imparting their worldly wisdom, dish out crazy costumes and wake you up at silly o’clock in the morning.  The day of tiring festivities ends as it started: drinking, laughing, and feeling more tired than ever before. After a Sunday of sleep deprived activity, you’ll finally get to ‘relax’ by running through Lower College Lawn…while having foam thrown all over you.  At the annual foam fight, everyone’s ‘families’ come together to get absolutely covered in shaving foam, turning a playful event into a freized tradition. It’s fun. It’s chaos. It’ll be the most weird and wonderful weekend of your life! 

Despite being home to the most rational intellects in the country, we’d rather jump into the road during rush hours than risk the bad luck that stepping on the PH stone brings. If you’ve ever wondered if it’s really that bad, make sure to ask yourself the following questions: Do you want to fail your exams? Do you want to fail your degree? Do you want to run around Sallie’s quad backwards in your birthday suit? If the answer is no, I’d advise leaving the PH stone alone. 

Running into the North Sea at 5am in the middle of a Scottish spring? Sign me up! May Dip is my favourite St. Andrews tradition. Not just because it’s the end of long days in the library, but also because it’s where you celebrate the year with friends and drink and giggle the evening into morning. Nothing screams fun more than feeling obliged (and equally excited) to stand with wet sandy feet, teeth chattering, pretending like May Dip was a great idea.  

Drumroll please…  I’m thrilled to announce my upcoming engagement. Sorry mum and dad, not a real one. But, I am getting academically married this year!  Come Spring, I’ll be living the dream as a wife.  If nothing other than an excuse to receive jewellery, it’s the perfect reason to throw a party and bask in the newly wed glow without the expense or commitment. 

These weird and wonderful traditions are what makes St. Andrews home. Besides, where else can you say your ‘parents’ have covered you in foam and you’ve survived a cursed stone?

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