A centuries-old Scottish university tradition has evolved from a raisin-giving ceremony into a lively foam fight spectacle. For generations, first-year students honored their mentors with a pound of raisins, but the event now features elaborate costumes and playful shaving cream battles. Hundreds of students gathered in costume, transforming the campus into a festive scene filled with soapy clouds and creative themed groups. The ritual remains a key rite of passage for new arrivals, blending gratitude with modern-day revelry.
Scottish university’s annual tradition once involved giving out raisins but fancy dress and shaving cream now in vogueNobody 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 on to 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. Groups of students dress as Smurfs, mice, bananas, grandmas, sunflowers and chefs to participate in the annual rite of passage. Continue reading...
