[PW] College jack-o-lantern tradition

[Sue Kamm]

I'm surprised that your college archives don't explain the reason for this
tradition.  I take it that (a) your college newspaper existed then, and (b)
it maintained a morgue, if not backfiles, and (c) that you've looked
through the paper (if it exists).  

This sounds to me like something a folklorist might have collected.  I
don't know if we have any such experts on the list, Some places to try:

The American Folklife Center at LC - http://www.loc.gov/folklife/
Bowling Green State University Popular Culture
Library:http://www.bgsu.edu/colleges/library/pcl/

HTH!

Your friendly neighborhood CyberGoddess and re-elected ALA Councilor at
Large, 
Sue Kamm
Email: suekamm[at]mindspring.com
Los Angeles Dodgers Truest of the Blue, 2000
Visit my blog:  http://suekamm.blogspot.com
Thanks to all who voted for me!


> [Original Message]
> From: Meredith Dixon <dixonm at pobox.com>
> To: <list at project-wombat.org>
> Date: 5/18/2007 12:38:23 AM
> Subject: [PW] College jack-o-lantern tradition
>
> This is for me, so no great hurry.  I'm an alumna of Randolph-Macon
Woman's 
> College in Lynchburg, Virginia, which has just gone co-ed and changed its 
> name to Randolph College. I'm trying to write a book about our campus 
> traditions.
>
> One such tradition is the Lantern Parade, later known as the Pumpkin
Parade.  
> In the Parade, the Seniors line up in cap and gown to carry lighted 
> jack-o-lanterns across campus on Halloween.
>
> Our yearbook first mentions the Lantern Parade in 1908.  But I have just 
> learned that, in October 1905, the Ladies' Home Journal published a
magazine 
> cover by Harrison Fisher which shows a group of classic "Fisher girls",
in 
> cap and gown, carrying lighted jack-o-lanterns in a long nighttime 
> procession.  The cover is uncaptioned, but it seems to be intended to 
> accompany an article on "College Girls' Merry Pranks".  Unfortunately,
the 
> article does not mention R-MWC.
>
> It is tempting to conclude that our Lantern Parade had started by 1905,
> but I don't know what Fisher would have been doing in Lynchburg,
Virginia, as 
> his studio was in New York.  On the other hand, we did have
> some students from New York and he could have heard about the parade
somehow.  
> The drawing is somewhat stylized and he needn't have drawn it from life.
>
> Anyway, what I'd like to ask Project Wombat is, does anyone know whether
there 
> are any other women's colleges who have or used to have such a tradition?

> And can you think of any better way to find out than calling the
reference 
> library of each woman's college, or former woman's college,
> extant in 1905 and asking them?
>
> I've Googled.  Googling brings up a lot of references to our own
tradition 
> (one of them a column of mine from my student days, in fact)
> and a reference to a school in the Midwest where seniors carve and hide
> jack-o-lanterns and freshmen search for them.  Nothing else.
>
> -- 
> Meredith Dixon <dixonm at pobox.com>
> Check out *Raven Days* <http://www.ravendays.org>
> For victims and survivors of bullying at school.
> And for those who want to help.
>
>
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