Academic families play a huge role in the traditions we love in St Andrews. With Father’s Day coming up this Sunday, we’re looking at academic fathers and families, and how memories of them are preserved in our collection.
Academic Dads come in many guises, not least the costumes they give their academic children on Raisin Weekend. The tradition of older students adopting younger students and guiding them through their first year at the University has become integral to the St Andrews way of life, and one that will long continue.
Traditionally, Academic Fathers will ask first year students to be their children, or Freshers will approach older students to be their Academic Mothers. Over the years however, this has evolved and there are no strict rules on Academic Adoption: all paths can lead to the perfect family! Over the years, these families have grown larger, and often students will become very close to not only their academic parents and siblings, but their academic aunts, uncles, and even grandparents! These experiences may be as short lived as Freshers’ Week and Raisin Weekend, or they may continue into lifelong friendships and form the backdrop to their student experience.
An infamous part of Academic Family tradition is the scavenger hunt of Raisin weekend, hosted by Academic Fathers. Students are sent to explore the town and find a variety of items, completing various challenges and overcoming obstacles along the way. The day finishes with drinking and festivities, before Raisin Monday begins. On the Monday, Academic Children would offer their Academic Parents a present to thank them, before being dressed up in costumes and sent to St Salvator’s Quad for the final event of Raisin Weekend: the foam fight.
Along with costuming his academic children before the foam fight, an Academic Father would write a Raisin receipt to thank them for their present. The present he received was traditionally a pound of grapes or raisins, quite a rare and expensive gift, but this has now evolved into a more appealing grape based product – wine! The returned Raisin receipt was to be presented by the academic children in St Salvator’s Quad before the foam fight started. Originally, these receipts were written in Latin on parchment, as can be seen on this one, from 1977. The raisin receipt traditionally says:
“Ego civis (name of parent), tertianus/a (if they are a third year) or magistrandus/a (fourth year) or alumnus/a (if they are a graduate) huius celeberrimae universitatis Sancti Andreae, qui (subject the parent studies) affirm, a te, meo/a bejanto/ina carissimo/a qui (subject the child studies) student, unam libram uvarum siccarum accepisse affirmo pro qua multas gratias tibi ago.”
Over the years, Raisin receipts have evolved and one of the challenges of Raisin for academic parents is to see how ridiculous an object they can make the Raisin receipt – if the Latin motto can be written on it, then the chances are it can and will become a Raisin receipt! From tee shirts to tractor tyres, if it can be taken to St Salvator’s Quad then academic children but must be ready to attempt to bring it to the foam fight. As with Dad’s and their love of DIY, academic fathers have put their hand to many different projects and created memorable Raisin receipts over the years.
As the Raisin receipts have evolved, so has the nature of the weekend’s festivities. What we now know as the foam fight started off as students throwing flour at each other, after comparing Raisin receipts in St Salvator’s Quad. The costumes worn by students protected their clothes have also evolved, growing more elaborate over the years. One such costume resides in our collection, from Raisin Monday 2016.
Looking to acquire one of the colourful creations for the collection, staff from the museum asked students leaving the foam fight and walking past the museum, then MUSA, if they were happy to donate their costume. Luckily one academic family were happy to oblige! Later in the day, however, the staff were approached by a furious student, who stormed into the museum, demanding her basilisk costume was returned to her. The academic parent of the children who had donated the costume had heard it was in the museum and had come to claim it! She was offended that her children had given it up so easily, after all of the effort she had put into making it. After staff explained that it was being exhibited in the collections, her manner changed, and she was happy for staff to keep her basilisk costume. This will be displayed in Gallery One of the Wardlaw Museum.
The costume and the memory of how it came to be in our possession is fondly talked about among the Museum Staff and reminds us all that academic families will forgive any misdemeanour of their children!
For the staff at the Museum, these stories bring the history of St Andrews, and the objects associated with it, to life and we would love to hear more of them. Do you have any fond memories of your time in an academic family? What was your raisin receipt? And are you still in touch with your academic family? Let us know through our social media channels (Facebook or Twitter) or email these in to us at [email protected].
Words by Mia Foale and Sophie Belau-Conlon
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