Dragon Day
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Dragon Day is an annual event at Cornell University. It occurs in March, often scheduled for the Thursday before St Patrick's Day and the university's Spring Break. The center of the event is the procession of a dragon, created by College of Architecture, Art, and Planning freshmen, past the College of Engineering and into the Arts Quad. There it is burned amidst yelling and dancing.
Contents
Origins and evolution
The first event was in 1901. Believing that there should be a "College of Architecture Day," student Willard Straight of the class of 1901 led a group of architecture students around campus carrying a model dragon. This was partly inspired by the legend of St. Patrick's driving all the snakes and serpents from Ireland. Lincoln Hall, which housed the College of Architecture at the time, was decorated with orange and green banners, shamrocks, and themed decorations. In the 1950s, the event evolved into its current form, with an actual constructed dragon. It is unknown when the term "Dragon Day" was coined, but it likely came into use in the 1950s. Since then, the holiday has turned into a parade for the dragon. Although it is typically carried from beneath by architecture students, in 1964 and 1976 the dragon was mounted on a car and driven through the route.Political expression
Dragon Day has been used as a form of political expression. At some point between its origin and 1920, the festivities were banned by Cornell's third president, Jacob Gould Schurman, because campus Catholics were offended by the theme. During the 1933-1934 school year, students constructed a large paper-mache beer stein to celebrate the repeal of Prohibition. In the 1950s, Dragon Day was cancelled in protest of Senator McCarthy's red scare. In 1968, the dragon was controversially painted entirely black in protest of the Vietnam War. In 1994, the possible cancellation of the Cornell in Rome Architecture Program prompted students to adopt a "Fall of Rome" theme.Pranks
Campus pranks often surround Dragon Day. In 1966, a green pig was released into the Ivy Room, a dining hall, resulting in a massive food fight. In 1974, artist Oded Halahmy threatened to remove his outdoor sculptures from the campus after some were splattered with green paint and moved. Recently, the night before Dragon Day, freshman architects moon the windows of Uris Library and festoon the Arts Quad with toilet paper. In 1990, the Department of Architecture severed all ties with the holiday due to the pranks, but began re-affiliating with it in 1993.Phoenix
Dragon Day signifies a rivalry between Cornell architecture students and those in the College of Engineering. Some years the engineers build a phoenix on the Engineering Quad to meet the dragon before it enters Ho Plaza and the Arts Quad. Variants on the phoenix have included a cobra in 2001, a penguin in 2005, a Viking longboat in 1988, and a giant, paper mache flagon in the 1920s.Today
The holiday is still traditionally carried on by freshmen architecture students. The windows of Rand Hall, the current home of the College of Architecture, are decorated in anticipation of the event. A T-shirt is designed and sold to the Cornell community to raise funding for the dragon and a celebratory dance for architecture students later in the semester.Dragons by year
Undated dragons
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