Raisin Sunday and Monday

                                                    This was me about an hour ago:
                                                  (And I apologize for the bathroom mirror shot...)

 

And with a friend I met before that:

 

This was me about an hour before that with my friend Marissa. She was dressed as a thief, I was a powderpuff girl.

 

This past weekend until today is considered 'Raisin Weekend' at St. Andrews. Arguably the most well-known and largest tradition and event of the year.

            The raisin weekend tradition involves first-year or study abroad students adopted by and mentored by third-year students throughout the fall and  throughout the year. The term raisin began when students first travelled to St. Andrews bringing only porridge and salt-herring as food to last them a full term. Every November after a months of mentorship and friendship, raisins (a luxury) were purchased as a gift for one’s academic father, as the school was only men then.

            Now, students are adopted by both mums and dads and gifts are given to both mother and father and can be anything.

I baked a few different desserts for my parents and brought those along yesterday for Raisin Sunday events.

On the morning of Raisin Monday, one will go to their mothers to be dressed in a costume, and his or her father’s to collect a raisin receipt. My mum dressed me as a pink powderpuff girl. :)

The receipt is rooted in the tradition of a receipt written in latin involving obeying the rules of St. Andrews and being a committed student. Traditionally, a father would release such receipt to his son as assurance that he is a committed St. Andrews student.

Now, receipts are large and/or strange objects carried along to the large foam fight. Creativity is certainly encouraged, and receipts can be anything. I guess livestock though is banned and is a criminal offense as the mid-twentieth century brought several unfortunate instances of both dead and alive livestock being used as receipts.

My receipt was raw meat, thankfully placed within a bag. As both of my parents had classes during mid-morning, I met up with my cousins and friends Julie and Marissa and went with them to collect their receipts from my uncles Marc and Henry prior to the foam fight. Julie received raw fish from Henry, unfortunately not in a bag. The uncles came along to the foam fight with us and my Aunt Sadie was kind enough to hold and keep my bag storing my camera and wallet. We headed over in a large group to the foam fight.

As we grew closer to the center of town and St. Salvator's quadrangle, there were thousands of students in colourful (oops...I guess I'm really getting used to the spelling here!) costumes and thousands more parents dressed nicely and warmly watching from behind metal police barriers with cameras. Townspeople too, wandered around confused. Police were everywhere, and students continued to arrive in creative and crazy costumes that continued to gain ‘oohs’ and ‘ahhs’ from the crowd. It felt like halloween and was so fun seeing the creativity and ideas involved in costumes. Some students were dressed as jars of jelly beans involving large colourful balloons, others were dressed as vegetables or flowers or characters. Julie was a panda which I really liked. We were shuffled through barriers and students carried receipts involving chairs, cannons, mattresses, fishing boats, tables, wagons, large cardboard boxes and flags among other items. I carried my receipt and my can of shaving cream and headed with Julie through the barriers. I found my Dad at one point who had just gotten out of class, he took a picture of us and we continued on. The smells of the raw fish that Julie and her five siblings each carried didn't smell too good at this point...curving around the town and the barriers holding back academic parents, we crossed streets guarded by police and were led to giant dumpsters where policemen and women asked us to throw our receipts. I tossed the meat deep within and we approached as a giant mob…. St. Salvator’s quadrangle.

It felt a bit like a graduation ceremony as we approached. Members of the media with cameras and academic parents were kept back on either side of the entry way and we were shuffled along. It was narrow and we walked in underneath the entryway to St. Salvator's chapel, constructed of sandstone in the 1400s, the chapel is in the center of town. We walked two by two passing several university officials and we entered…slowly…but boldly.

And it began!

 

Soon we were engulfed by the mob scene, sprayed by foam from all sides. Marissa found Julie and I and commented on how clean I was immediately before cleansing us with foam. Soon hands and cans came from everywhere. Our costumes and bodies were covered and foam was everywhere. It certainly wasn’t the best experience ever, but it was incredibly fun. Quickly though, a few too many foamy hands had reached from behind my head into my face and I used the inside of my powderpuff costume to regain my sight, smell and taste. I can still smell the shaving cream and feel the absent sensation of foam in my ears. Julie and I continued to run around the foam fight spraying others here and there and being sprayed in return. Large camera lenses were situated and clean on one side of the quad, and some (brave) students carried foam-covered cameras as they ran around the fight. We found students we knew and found that costumes were unrecognizable and covered in white foam. Then the attacks grew a bit worse though, and I found I had a bit too much foam in my ear and couldn't hear too much. I pulled over to the outskirts of the foamy fight to try to remove it and wipe some foam off my face when…my face got covered again. Ha ha, it was here too that a photographer from the student newspaper approached me and asked for an unsmiling serious photo… ha ha ha I don’t think I’d like to see that! J I wiped away as much as I could and made my way to the awesome first aid station across the quad. Volunteers moved on from one foamy face to the next, and my mask was lifted off and my eyes were cleaned by a volunteer with some nice towels. She warned me of how cold the water would be, and it certainly was a shock. She took a while with my eyes and I realized I shouldn’t have worn mascara that morning. My face was wiped clean and I felt fresh. I was able to wet my hands too, letting the big clumps of foam attached to my palms drift away in a large bucket. Other students were hosed down fully nearby. It felt a bit cold for that.

Because I didn't bring my camera into the fight (in the words of my Aunt Sadie, 'It will be destroyed')Here are a few images of earlier today by the Montreal Gazette:

http://www.montrealgazette.com/Photos+Foam+fight+Raisin+Monday/7463914/story.html

                                         And here's an image from the Guardian of last year's foam fight:

 

            I turned from the quad and made my way out of the fight through a peeling black iron wrought gate to be greeted by thousands of academic parents behind more metal police barriers. I was handed a plastic cup of warm fruit juice by a policeman and the narrow walk felt a bit like leaving a battle scene or an Olympic stadium or the ending of a marathon, as along with the few foamy students exitting at the same time I was were stared down i nsilence by such proper-looking students wearing quilted button-down jackets, sweaters, and dresses, complete with scarves, hats, and mittens carrying leather bags and laptop cases. Those of us covered in foam were breathing heavily and regaining our senses. I wasn’t too cold at all, as it was about fifty degrees with sunshine but the warm juice tasted so good. I found my Aunt Sadie pressed against the barriers and my hands were still a bit foamy but I grabbed my bag from her and she wished me well.

            I headed back and met a few different foamy students on the way back. Entering my residence, the Scottish ladies at the front desk greeted me and smiled seeing my appearance. I headed up to my room and passed a couple cleaning ladies, said hello and heard the quiet response of… ‘Oh dear….’ I tossed most of my layers into the sink, filled it with water and took a hot shower. I removed foam from my ears and washed a lot of foam from my hair.

 

As for yesterday, it was Raisin Sunday, the fun/party day before Raisin Monday. It's a full day event and is certainly exciting.

            Arriving at my Mum’s, I was met by a crowd of 25 other children on the sidewalk and five mums standing atop a stone wall above with a megaphone shared between them. We were given the instructions to arrive promptly at 9:03 a.m. and that there would be punishment if we were late or early. My clock told me it was 8:58 when I arrived, but it must have been off, as I was told through the megaphone I was right on time, and anyone who arrived after I did would be deemed late. To enter the flat, the 25 of us were asked to take at least one alcoholic shot of some mysterious drink. It certainly got me thinking about the authoritative theme revolving around the days events, and I had heard how raisin is truly quite close to American frat parties. Because I’m not a fresher, and in fact the same age and year as the mums, that gained me a bit more respect, but we also all were given the choice to drink, and were not forced into anything.

Placed in a group with my full brother Garreth and a few cousins we did enjoy a wonderful scavenger hunt around town at 10 a.m. which was quite a bit of fun. We needed to take pictures of many of the tasks, and a few are included below.

My cousin Peter gaining an autograph:

 

Myself hugging a stranger (a fellow student) wearing purple:

 

With a student wearing an interesting costume and a traditional St. Andrews gown:

 

Other tasks involved two of our group members swimming in the North Sea, creating a horror film on the streets of St. Andrews, and searching for a melon. Another task involved returning with a live rabbit. I had brought along my plastic purple Easter bunny straw for the day, (a twisty plastic straw shaped like a rabbit bought a few years ago at Hannaford) thinking I would use it; and later, when the scavenger hunt task of returning with a live rabbit was called off through the megaphone by the mums,  I pulled out my bunny straw  and found it awarded us 300 points, about 60% of the points we received! I used the straw all day and found constantly everyone loved it and was asking about it. It was quite the conversation starter. 

Much of the afternoon was spent at our Mums and I spent a lot of time with friends and two of my brothers, Garreth and Josh:

 

After an afternoon nap, I woke to a very, very dark 5 p.m. The time change on Sunday morning changed everything around. I gathered my gifts for my dad, including a mug that he really loved which read, ‘My Dad is the Best,’ and some tasty treats that myself and my sisters baked for him in the shape of a ‘T’ for ‘Trevor Clan.’ I met Julie who was just emerging from her Mum’s party and we headed over. The party at my Dad's was mostly a dance party and a reunion of siblings and extended family. Mostly I just spent the evening laughing and dancing with friends. 

As the party had began at 6 p.m., Julie and I left together a few hours later after a long day. It was a comfortable, mild night and we both were back at our residences by 9:30. I made some oatmeal with raspberries and enjoyed a quiet night.

 

With the ending of the foam fight today, Raisin weekend has officially ended. I don't have classes this week, but am ready to jump into some reading. Also, I've been following the news of Hurricane Sandy as it is dominating major news here in the U.K. I'll be thinking of the East Coast the next few days and hope everything is okay.