Winter Carnival: Light on tradition, heavy on the Keystone. And right in the middle of midterms. But is this a bad thing? Jean Ellen Cowgill ponders this solution to the work hard, play hard dilemma.
"Stripped of its traditions, Winter Carnival doesn't actually mean anything anymore. It really is just an excuse to party." At some time in your Dartmouth career, in some form, you have made this statement -- unless of course, you are an '11, in which case you will be making it circa this Sunday.
Yes, my friends, we know. Making the "Nobody-Traditions-Anymore" argument does not make you a particularly astute observer of Dartmouth life. It's been said before, and it will be said again (this weekend, in fact).
But I would like to argue that the underlying assumption of this statement -- namely, that this is a bad thing -- reveals an unsophisticated understanding of the Hanover social dynamic. In other words, complaining about the lack of focus for Winter Carnival, or any of Dartmouth's "big weekends" for that matter, is just plain dumb.
The problem begins freshman year, when our expectations for Winter Carnival are completely skewed. Having mastered the glory of the Chi Gam dance party during orientation and this game called "pong" on our freshman floors, we expect the Big Weekend to offer Bigger Challenges, Bigger Dartmouth Traditions.
"Winter Carnival is like a receding hairline. It's one of those traditions that always looks better in old pictures. Then you wake up one Sunday morning and realize you're bald. And you're covered in your own urine. And it was all just a dream induced by your arthritis medication," Bud Simi '08 said.
When we first discover "bigger" only means more crowded basements, we feel disillusioned, cheated out of some fuzzy snowflake-covered vision. Didn't snow sculpture construction signal there would be more to this "Carnival" than the usual social scene?
"I don't really know what I expected from Winter Carnival," the ever-quotable Lily Macartney '08 said. "But it's definitely a weekend you can ruin if you set your expectations too high. Once you get over the myth of Winter Carnival, you can start having fun. After all, who doesn't want an excuse to wear a side ponytail to early 80s?"
And that, right there, is the often-misunderstood beauty of Winter Carnival. It is, as we have all observed/complained, just an "excuse to party," an agreed-upon weekend when class is cancelled to make room for your hangover, when no professor is supposed to have the indecency to assign, well, anything, and when everyone is supposed to feel completely entitled to rage.
It's what one might call the Enforced Fun of Big Weekends, if one were to come up with a cheesy slogan. Peer pressure en masse -- the weekend everybody's doing it. What is "it" you ask? Partying with an uninhibited acceptance of the Dartmouth Social Scene usually reserved only for Orientation and Senior Week.
The beauty of Enforced Fun, then, is that Dartmouth has made scheduling limited rage time simple. Every time a thesis-weary senior cries out, clamantis-in-deserto style, for the good old days when '08 meant '11 and she knew how to rage, she is consoled with: "But you'll be going out for Winter Carnival, right?" Her eyes light up and she whispers hopefully "Of course! We should, y'know, play pong! The kids still do that these days, right?" Then she slumps, her face glazes over and she returns to her paper-covered niche in Periodicals with the knowledge that Keystone-drenched relief is nigh.
Enforced Fun is a social numbers game, making it easy for all ye-with-shit-to-do to schedule reckless behavior seamlessly into an over-programmed term. Say you are an eager-beaver, overly-ambitious sophomore taking four classes -- which weekend to you choose to set it all aside? Or as a junior on an off term -- which weekend should you visit? Or an alum -- when do you visit to ensure maximum numbers of underclassmen out to sketch upon? GHOST BUST errrrr.... Winter Carnival!
So a weekend dedicated to the Dartmouth scene at its best really isn't such a bad idea after all. But I would also contend that comments implying Winter Carnival used to "mean more," in the golden days of traditions, are nave. Don't get me wrong. I wish we still had some of the customs of the old College. But think about it: National Geographic referring to the "Mardi Gras of the North"? Fitzgerald getting too drunk at the frats to keep working on Winter Carnival the movie? Keg jumps?
This weekend has always been all about the rager. Pre-1972, they bussed in women just for the event. If that doesn't speak to a weekend of campus-wide no-strings-attached, snow-sculpture-induced hook-ups, I don't know what does.
In fact, bussing is one tradition I think it's time we reinstate. Just because we've gone co-ed doesn't mean Dartmouth doesn't need some new faces (for the kissing) on occasion.
Granted, the more timid among us might never get to the front of the line at frats with our new special friends hanging around. Still, students have proven receptive to the idea.
"Remember, the best way to stay warm is to create your own warmth," said Jon Hopper '08. "I think we should have them parachute in around the snow sculpture. Then we could sing 'It's snowing men! Hallelujah! It's snowing men!'"
If it can get Jon to sing the Weather Girls, I say it's a tradition we should embrace.
