Amazing Oxford Traditions

Amazing Oxford Traditions

Oxford University surely has more quaint traditions per square mile than any other university.

Matriculation

Matriculation

Oxford students in sub-fusc at matriculation.

• Where better to start than with the tradition that formally confirms your place as a student of Oxford University. Most other universities ceremoniously mark only the end of your studies, but, Oxford being Oxford, your enrolment at the university is considered equally worthy of ceremony. Thus the Matriculation Ceremony, a grand occasion that takes place at the end of your first week.

Nepotists’ Carols

Taking place at Balliol at the end of Michaelmas Term each year is an event called Nepotists’ Carols. At first glance it doesn’t seem all that eccentric: it’s simply a free, ticketed carol-singing gathering in the college hall at which students can sip mulled wine and celebrate Christmas together.

The Corpus Christi Tortoise Fair

Held in aid of charity, Corpus Christi’s Tortoise Fair is one of the lovelier eccentricities at Oxford and has at its heart the Tortoise Race, in which tortoises from various colleges race to get to the edge of a ring of lettuce .

It’s thought to have been started in the 1920s. Corpus’s own tortoises are named Oldham and Foxe – whose care is presided over by a “Custos Testudinum” or “JCR Tortoise Keeper”, elected at the start of each year – while Worcester College has one with the amusing name of “Zoom”.

May Morning

• Town and Gown people alike gather early on May Morning (1 May) to hear the choir of Magdalen College sing the Eucharist from the top of Magdalen’s bell tower. It’s a tradition that’s been going for over 500 years, and it’s still celebrated as enthusiastically as ever. Most people have stayed up all night to witness this, and pubs stay open and cafes open early to provide refreshments for the revellers.There are Morris dancers as well, not to mention other musical entertainment, and many of the students will attend in white tie having stayed up all night partying at a college ball held the night before. Contrary to popular belief, jumping off the bridge into the river is  not  a traditional part of the May Day celebrations – it only started happening in the 80s, and now the police have put a stop to it because people have been injured in this way.

On Wednesdays we wear bat suits

… Well not quite bat suits. But if you walk through the town centre just before an exam, a matriculation or graduation day, or basically before the university has any opportunity at all to demand that its students don their academic dress, you could be forgiven for thinking you’d accidentally intruded upon a convocation of bats, or maybe witches.