Top Ten Georgetown Traditions
Playfair
College is all about testing boundaries, and Playfair is no exception. This hour-and-a-half “ultimate icebreaker” takes place annually on Giddings Lawn as part of our four-day New Student Orientation. Freshmen will get to know their fellow classmates by participating in a variety of fun activities designed to maximize the number of contacts they make in a short time span. Playfair is a great activity for extroverts, but those who prefer to meet new folks in small groups also often enjoy this exciting (and brief) part of Orientation weekend.
Grubfest
Undoubtedly
Georgetown’s dirtiest tradition, Grubfest goes against all of your mother’s
admonitions to stop playing with your food. Every September, students
tumble out of their residence halls and join in the Quad for the annual battle
to see which team can complete the most challenges and, of course, get the
filthiest! In a matter of hours, the Quad is transformed from a lush,
green open area for socializing and studying into a slimy, muddy arena covered
with food products. Teams compete to win unusual events, such as
assembling Mr. Potato Heads from parts found in buckets of Italian food,
creating the largest possible ice cream sundae using dairy products and their
teammates, racing up a hill covered in slime, and other messy challenges
involving flour, Jell-O, syrup, and of course, mud! At the end of Grubfest,
the two dirtiest and most creative participants are crowned king and queen of
the year’s festivities. A lesser known aspect of Grubfest is the annual
“Race for the Showers” that follows this Georgetown tradition.
Chili
Cookoff
One
of the campus’s spiciest traditions, Georgetown College’s Interfraternity
Council sponsors an annual chili cook-off. This tasty competition allows
students and staff to enter their chili into a variety of categories in hopes of
winning a prize for their gourmet skills. For the past seven years, this
free event has served up bowlfuls of delectable chili prepared lovingly by
organizations and groups as diverse as all five campus fraternities, the
Executive Cabinet, the LRC staff, and the Psychology department, to name a few.
Along with the chili itself, cheese and other toppings are also provided by the
IFC, as well as peanut butter sandwiches for those who like to “dunk” their
chili. It’s a chili-lover’s favorite day of the year!
Songfest
Despite
the fact that our campus is the proud home of Maskrafters, the oldest collegiate
theatre company in Kentucky, the October show that ranks highest on the campus’s
must-see list is strictly an amateur production. Songfest, a Georgetown
original, is an evening of skits written by, starring, and produced by all of
the Greek organizations on campus and any residence hall that is interested in
participation. These skits incorporate singing (hence the name
“Songfest”), dancing, and acting, and range from wacky and off-the-wall to
elaborate productions rivaling local musical theatre troupes. The only
criterion is that each skit must incorporate the year’s Homecoming theme in some
way. Songfest is held annually on the Friday night preceding Homecoming in
John L. Hill Chapel, and every year, the chapel is packed to capacity. Be
sure to buy tickets in the weeks before the show – this is one Georgetown
tradition that you don’t want to miss!
Hanging of the Green
Christmas
is the time of year most fraught with tradition and here at Georgetown, we like
to ensure that our students truly feel at home with our own campus Christmas
tradition, the Hanging of the Green. Each December, students, faculty, and
staff gather together in the Chapel on the first Monday night of the month for a
worship service including an Advent wreath lit by faculty and staff, an
upperclassman offering the service’s message, and a Christmas tree trimmed
on-stage with ornaments representing various organizations on campus. The
service concludes on Giddings Circle, where attendees sing “Silent Night” as the
hundreds of white lights that decorate the center of our campus shine brightly
into the night for the first time of the season. Beautiful as well as
meaningful, Hanging of the Green is one of Georgetown’s most beloved traditions.
Midnight
Brunch
It’s the one night every semester that we ensure that after-hours eateries in
Georgetown lose a little bit of business: Midnight Brunch in the Caf! Each
semester, the Caf selects one night during finals week to open at midnight.
While music blares and games are played, professors serve students platefuls of
comfort food to help fuel their late-night study sessions. The food is excellent
and the atmosphere zany, but Georgetown students love Midnight Brunch simply
because it provides an opportunity to dine, socialize, and take a break from the
stress of studying for finals in the comfort of their campus community.
Belle of the Blue
Georgetown’s
small-scale version of Miss America, Belle of the Blue is our campus’s annual
scholarship pageant, open to freshmen, sophomore, and junior women. At the
beginning of the spring semester, each residence hall, including the male
dormitories, nominates a woman to compete as their representative in the
February event. On pageant night, after much preparation during the prior
week, the women are judged based on scholarship, interview, talent, and poise
and appearance. While only one special lady can claim the coveted title of
“Belle of the Blue,” the title of “Miss Congeniality,” as well as the equally
coveted overall scholarship to Georgetown College, is also up for grabs.
Belle of the Blue holds a special place in the heart of generations of
Georgetown women.
Chapel
Day/Bid Day
GC
Greeks have a special place in their heart for this campus tradition. Each January,
sororities and fraternities anxiously await the arrival of their new members in
two separate events, Chapel Day and Men's Bid Day. Chapel Day is a sorority event: pledges dress in their new sorority’s
colors and run through the doors of the Chapel into the waiting arms of their
sisters. An exciting moment in itself, active members of the sororities are unaware of which girls
accepted their bids until they fly through the Chapel doors. Needless to
say, this makes Chapel Day exciting for pledges and active members alike!
While the ladies greet their new sisters, many of the men on campus gather
around to watch the festivities, sporting the colors of their favorite
sororities. The fraternities’ version of Chapel Day occurs the next week,
is referred to as Men’s Bid Day, operates in a similar fashion and is held at
Cooke Memorial. Girls come out in droves to support the fraternity or
organization with which they have a special relationship, often as some form of
“little sister.” Whether you’re affiliated with the Greek system or choose
to remain independent, Chapel Day is fun for the entire student body.
Name
Exchange Ceremony
One of Georgetown’s most bittersweet traditions, the Name
Exchange Ceremony takes place on the day before graduation, following the senior
banquet and preceding the Baccalaureate service, two other very special campus
traditions. The soon-to-be grads file out of the Caf and shake hands with
most of the faculty members who have guided them over the past four years, but
this time, the professors introduce themselves by their first names as a
symbolic gesture to remind seniors that the student-professor relationship has
now come to an end. While the official tradition is to exchange a
handshake, hugs abound and it is not uncommon for seniors (and their professors)
to reach the end of the line teary-eyed.
Commencement
It’s the reward for four years of hard work: Georgetown College’s
commencement
ceremony takes place every May on lush Giddings Lawn during fair weather and is
re-located to Alumni Gymnasium in the case of inclement weather. Seniors
troop through the doors of Giddings Hall and fan out onto the front lawn, where
commencement proceeds. There is nothing quite like an outdoor commencement
and the mood is often festive, rather than somber. Graduation, while the
last tradition you will enjoy as a Georgetown student, officially paves the way
to alumni status, at which point you will discover a whole new array of
traditions as a Georgetown alum!