Author Archives: Lauren Liedel

Oxford Boat Burning

Oriel Bumps Men's 8 Boat Burning

Oriel Bumps Men’s 8 Boat Burning

A and I are old grade school friends from our days in Washington D.C. We fell out of touch at the beginning of our sophomore year of high school and actually ran into each other on the street while both of us were studying abroad at Oxford University. She spent her whole term time as a part of Oriel College and became involved in the student life by attending formal balls, bops, and integrating herself in the Oriel squash and rowing teams. I was a part of New College, so naturally I was curious as to the particular traditions of Oriel College and how they differed with New.

A: As you know any sport revolves heavily around the varsity match. This is the Oxford vs. Cambridge competition where you have to show your true pride, but we have races and competition between the colleges themselves. I played squash and rowed for Oriel.

L: Is there anything special with these races?

A: Yes, oh my god! So we have two major races: summer 8s and bumps. If you become head of the river you get to burn a boat and celebrate. While I was there, our men’s first 8 won bumps and paraded an old wooden boat from our boathouse (coxswain sitting in the boat of course). We were chanting Oriel and other things that supported our victory. Sometimes we would sing crazy spirited songs until we get to the main quad. There we smash the boat to pieces and have a three course dinner. The two first 8s eat at high table, while the rest of the crews have to sing for their dinner. You start with the lowest boat and the boat songs adapt what happens during the race to a more personalized experience. I think we did My Bumps instead of My Humps. After dinner, the provost lights the boat on fire post a small speech and the winning crew jumps over it.

L: It’s funny that you mention this because I have a good friend who was a coxswain at Pembroke and they have the same ritual except they light the boat on fire right away and then have a crazy dinner.

A: There’s surprisingly a lot of crossover between Oxford and Cambridge with tradition, but I like this one in particular because it creates a sort of community and you get to light an old boat on fire!

George the Oriel Tortoise

A and I are old grade school friends from our days in Washington D.C. We fell out of touch at the beginning of our sophomore year of high school and actually ran into each other on the street while both of us were studying abroad at Oxford University. She spent her whole term time as a part of Oriel College and became involved in the student life by attending formal balls, bops, and integrating herself in the Oriel squash and rowing teams. I was a part of New College, so naturally I was curious as to the particular traditions of Oriel College and how they differed with New.

A: I know since you’re a rower, you would totally appreciate this weird tradition that we have at Oriel. At one point, Oriel College had a pet tortoise named George. He died a long time ago, and this is going to be gross, but the college kept his body. It was mainly done by the men’s rowing team for the following reason. As a part of initiation into the team, you have to drink some sort of liquid (it can be alcoholic or otherwise) through George, like through his eye sockets. One team member stands above you and pours a liquid through one and you drink it as it comes through the other.

L: Have you done this or is it a men’s team thing?

A: I can neither confirm nor deny that I’ve done it, but it’s a crazy tradition for Oriel rowing!

L: It’s curious because a lot of boat clubs have initiations. I can’t go into them, but we had a specific one at Vesper the summer I spent on the U23 team.

Burning Stick Transformation

A and I met at our favorite vegetarian cafe, Good Karma, to discuss my most recent crystal healing class based out of a small shamanic practice in Santa Monica. She and I have spoken about our spiritual and homeopathic practices many times before, but soon we started discussing use and cleansing methods for crystals. Her father, a practicing shaman, has this habit of infusing problems into stones by blowing on them and cleaning them with fire. We soon learned that our healing traditions were centered in different elements: mine in water, hers in fire. A’s shamanism uses fire heavily as a transformative property.

A: We have this practice that we sometimes use at big gathering rituals, but I think it highlights the major difference between how our groups approach healing and forecasting transformation. Say you want to dispel negative thoughts and attain a better life, we use this practice to affirm and set the foundation that you want. Again, almost all of our practices center around bonfires of some kind. Perhaps we’re just a big group of pyros, haha. Anyways, when you want to set an intention and gain a more positive future we set some time aside to go through the motions of this ritual.

First, you receive two sticks. It doesn’t matter necessarily what kind of wood they are, it’s really at the discretion of the person in charge of hosting the event. When my family does it, we just get some wood we have left over from other bonfires we set up. I don’t think there is anything particularly special about the wood we use, but I could be wrong. Once each person has two sticks, we have a spell of quiet time where people focus their mental energy on any thoughts or desires that could be holding them back from flourishing. They then blow these things into the stick like one would with a flute. Next, people come together and toss their sticks into the fire, dancing about in the smoke and firelight. The more you bathe in the smoke, the more free of your burning trouble you are. Soon this all dies down and we repeat the process, except this time you blow in what you want instead. The fire operates as a transformative property that consumes the bad stuff of your life.

L: Okay, interesting. I went to Joshua Tree about one month ago and we ended up burning different types of flowers. We did not dispel the negative energy from ourselves, but rather we spent the time cleansing the space with palo santo. Again, I’m not really a fire person, but my friend E wanted to set a positive atmosphere for our creative retreat. I did find some serious inspiration for my paintings recently

A: It works like that, but again this is just one small practice for a massive night of rituals. It really isn’t a stand alone thing.

Part of the transformative burning ceremony

Part of the transformative burning ceremony

Vesper Tigers

M was a twenty-two year old Temple University rower, who grew up in New Jersey. His interest in rowing stemmed from his father’s history with the Vesper Boat Club in Philadelphia, PA. Growing up, he spent time around boathouse row on the Schuylkill River watching his father race against other masters’ teams like Penn Athletic Club. Eventually, he spent three summers in between college on the U23 men’s team at Vesper. He heard this particular joke one summer while racing up at St. Catharine’s for Canadian nationals from a stake-boat holder during an afternoon practice. As a charismatic person, M was instantly considered to be the captain of the 2012 team. During one regatta against other crews from boathouse row, K (one of the Vesper rowers) asked why Vesper Boat Club did not have a mascot like the eagle from Penn Athletic Club. Almost all the other squads had short, traditional chants, but Vesper only had the “All Together” slogan. M decided to ask the other members of our team to gather in one of the boathouse bays post regatta to tell us the legend of the Vesper mascot. Sitting in boat slings and on the floor exhausted, the entire U23 team, both lightweights and heavyweights, awaited M’s story. He framed the legend by referencing the old photos of past victories and the shifting squads.

M: Vesper once had a mascot. Back when my father joined the club, he heard this story about the Vesper tigers. Apparently back then, the club was starting up and of course there was some sort of hazing involved. Each of the team members had to get a tiger somewhere on their body before the start of the season. If they didn’t it would be bad luck for the entire racing season. Eventually one by one the entire boat club had tattooed tigers on their bodies. At one point, there was a young coxswain who appeared to not want to have to get the tattoo and went to the coach. Apparently, the coach was alarmed when he began taking off the rowers shirts and finding the tiger. He was so angry that he eliminated the Vesper mascot all together”

I remember M tell us this story pointing out where different crew members had their tattoos on the pictures on the wall. He even went so far as saying the phrase “All Together” Vesper’s mantra came out of this moment. We all bonded over the tiger and came together in the face of adversity.

Henry the Hanukah Man

A and I sat down to talk about our family traditions for this folklore project and as soon as we hit family traditions he face lit up. Raised Jewish, A often felt left out around Christmas time when she went to school. Her friends talked about Santa Claus and when asked about her own Christmas, A went home in tears since she did not have a respective figure for Hanukah. A and I went out to dinner and began discussing our family histories and what they did for us when we were growing up. I had mentioned that my family never recognized Santa Claus and it was incredibly strange for me to hear about him growing up. A launched into her own story about her stand in for the jolly old man.

A: Growing up I celebrated Hanukah and never really had any notion of what or who Santa Claus was until I was in preschool. Some of my friends asked why I had yet to hear of Santa Claus and used to tease me that I was a bad girl since I had never known about him. My mom transformed the Santa Claus figure into Henry the Hanukah man so I did not feel weird. Even though I totally knew it was her doing the whole process, it was nice to feel like I had something to fill that void. Henry was my supplement for Santa Claus. Each night the doorbell would, but I never was fast enough to catch who it was. Sometimes she would pretend like she didn’t hear it and other times she was would run into my room and ask if I heard anything. When I opened the door, there would be my present sitting on the doorstep.

L: So Henry was an adaptation of Santa Claus for your family?

A: Ever since I was four, she stopped keeping up the whole Henry story when I got older, but it was nice to feel included in the whole holiday figure thing.