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Posted Jan. 18, 2013

5 of the Weirdest University Traditions in the World

We knew university students could be strange, but we didn't know they were downright freaky!

From the weird, to the wonderful, to the naked... check out the five strangest university traditions from around the world.

Scavenger Hunt Every year the University of Chicago organises an annual scavenger hunt that has been touted as the largest of its kind in the world. Sounds like fun right?  Who wouldn't want to join in on an event of such epic proportions? Problem is, this is no ordinary scavenger hunt. Over the years, this four-day event has included insane instructions like 'get circumcised' and 'build a nuclear reactor'. You might think who's gonna go to those lengths, but both undergraduates and postgraduate students do, every year! Now that's pure dedication right there.

Foam Fight Aka 'Raisin Weekend' hosted by St Andrews University in Scotland is basically nonstop mayhem which spans over a two-day period. As tradition has it, third years at St Andrews adopt first year students at the start of each academic year, and become their respective 'mothers' or 'fathers'. Yes it gets weirder! By the second weekend of November, all hell breaks loose as the first years are dressed up in outrageous costumes and laden with alcohol (originally this was a gift of raisins hence the name). After two days of house parties and pure madness, the first year 'children' congregate in the quad where a foam fight ensues.

Primal Scream Universities all over the world practice the art of letting loose and relieving exam stress, but Carleton College 's 'Primal Scream' really hits the nail on the head. Every semester dead on 10pm, the night before final exams begin - students at Carleton's open their window, stick their head out and scream until their little hearts are content. These collective wails of anguish and despair will give you the fright of your life if you happen to stumble onto campus unaware of what to expect when the clock strikes ten.

Time Ceremony As the oldest university in the English-speaking world, Oxford has a whole host of both official and unofficial student traditions that will leave you bemused, but the Time Ceremony takes the cake. Undertaken by Merton College , this extremely bizarre tradition involves students getting up at the crack of dawn on the last Sunday in October (when the clocks go back) to walk backwards around the college grounds in efforts to maintain the space-time continuum. Did we mention they're also drinking port?

Streak the Lawn Of course our list of top five wouldn't be complete without some full nudity, would it? At University of Virginia , nakedness and absurdity reaches a whole new level of craziness. Before graduating, students must strip down to their birthday suits, sprint down the Rotunda, across a 740 foot lawn, kiss the statue of Homer, then sprint all the way back again! Testing not only self confidence but also speed, this tradition is not sanctioned by the university and is only kept alive thanks to die-hard students that are loyal to preserving this wacky rite of passage .

Does your university have any unusual traditions that you'd like to share?
 

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