Tag Archives: Senior

Senior pranks- Tradition

Prank: Goldfish in the Amphitheater

Text:

Informant: “Someone way before us did this, and it became kind of a legend because it was so crazy. My school had this Greek-style amphitheater that was basically a lower area, like a pit, and it was probably about five feet deep. Apparently one graduating class decided to do their senior prank there. In the middle of the night they filled the whole amphitheater with water and put a bunch of goldfish in it. The next day everyone showed up and was like, ‘What the heck?’ I have no idea exactly when it happened. It must have been in the late 2000s or early 2010s. Eventually the school had to drain the water and all the goldfish died.”

Interviewer: “How did you hear about the goldfish prank? Does everyone know it?”

Informant: “Everyone knows it. And then I would tell other people about it as the craziest prank I knew about. I don’t even know if it really happened, it was just something people said. Everyone agreed it was the best graduating prank that ever happened.”

Context:

The informant heard about this prank at their high school, where the story circulated widely among students as part of the school’s shared culture. According to the informant, the prank was said to have been carried out by a graduating class sometime in the late 2000s or early 2010s, before the informant attended the school. Although the informant did not witness the event and is unsure whether it actually occurred, the story was commonly told among students and was often described as the most extreme senior prank in the school’s history.

Analysis:

These pranks usually occur right before graduation, a transition period when seniors are about to become graduates. This time can be stressful as students finish classes, exams, and prepare to leave school, so pranks can serve as an outlet to release tension. They become both a way to leave a final mark on the school and an act of rebellion. At the same time, organizing and carrying out a prank can unite the graduating class by giving them a shared goal and experience before they leave. In this sense, senior pranks function somewhat like a rite of passage, allowing students to assert their independence and mark the end of their time at the school through a visible and memorable act.

Senior pranks also reflect the folkloric concepts of multiplicity and variation. While the tradition itself exists at many schools, the specific prank changes depending on the graduating class. Each class attempts to create something memorable, often using recognizable parts of the school’s infrastructure or shared spaces, which leads to different versions of the prank across grades and schools.

In this case, the story about the goldfish prank also takes on the form of a legend because it continues to circulate even though the informant is unsure whether it actually happened. The exact time and details remain unclear, yet the story is still widely known among students and passed down to underclassmen because of its extremity. Over time, stories like this become part of the school’s folklore, as repeated retelling keeps the event alive within the folk group.

Facebook Senior Names

Background: 

My informant, AK, is a 19 year old student at the University of Michigan. She was born and raised in Southern California and is studying engineering. While in high school, AK was an active member and team captain of her school’s swim team. She attended the school from kindergarten until she graduated and knew the place inside and out. (I’ll be referring to myself as SW in the actual performance).

Performance: 

AK: For as long as I can remember, it’s been tradition at our high school to make a fake name on facebook for senior year. Everyone would make a pun based off their name, referencing a movie or celebrity. When it first started, it was to protect people’s identities, so that of prospective colleges looked up students on facebook, they wouldn’t find their page. By the time we were seniors, there wasn’t really a need to do this because it was general knowledge that colleges didn’t really care, but our grade kept on with the tradition anyways.

Thoughts:

It’s interesting to understand where some aspect of folklore comes from, and to see how its meaning has changed over time. What started as a superstition morphed into a tradition that stood to be a rite of passage. Kids as early as freshman year would begin to think about their senior name, anxious to be done with high school and on their way to college. Senior names were a way of expressing yourself, while also engaging in a unifying experience across the grade.

Berkeley Senior Steps

Nationality: German-American
Age: 20
Residence: student
Performance Date: April 23
Primary Language: English

Context: The informant was reminiscing on traditions at her high school, Berkeley High in Berkeley, California. The senior steps were a major part of the folklore at her high school.

Piece: So in high school, there were these like these stairs, these steps with like a bench on them and we called them the senior steps. So like only the seniors were allowed to stand on them and if there was like a freshman or sophomore standing on the senior steps, people would like stare them down slash be like what are you doing on the senior steps? It’s inside of the school, and we actually had a meme page that has like 5,000 followers, ha weird flex, and like basically some sophomore actually a few weeks ago peed on the senior steps to like disrespect the seniors or something. And it was the biggest ordeal because like they’re just fucking steps and its like where the cool seniors eat lunch or meet up. Everybody knows the senior steps. And we had like rally day which is like once a year we dress up and everyone was drunk and high at school it was crazy and everyone was like yelling on the steps “Seniors, Seniors!”

I guess it’s just like a pride thing, and like I definitely like after three years of not being allowed you finally get to elevate yourself onto these brick steps. I didn’t really care but like a lot of people cared and like mind you these are gross steps like ugly and dingy. And like there was like tagged names or gossip written on the steps too. Ha it was so wack

Background: The informant, a 20 year old USC student, went to Berkeley High School, and experienced the tradition/rite of passage of the senior steps.

Analysis: This piece is a form of a rite of passage and ritual that was created surrounding these steps in her high school. The steps have become an honor that is bestowed upon seniors, as a form of status and privilege that they are entering the adult world. The steps create a hierarchy, showing that the school and consequently American society, pushes for the future and growth and moving up. In order to get to the privileges of the steps, you must work your way and finally get your status– which hows how the seniors will be leaving and moving into the future. The steps have been ritualized further by hosting the rally and the gossip markings, indicating its connection to school culture and spirit. The mention of more popular students being the regular utilizers of the steps indicates further this level of hierarchy ingrained in the culture of high school, and ultimately our society as Americans. By gaining the status, it serves as a stepping stone or rite of passage into the adult world.

The Princeton Gate Superstition

Nationality: American
Age: 20
Occupation: Boston University Student
Residence: Boston
Performance Date: 03/12/19
Primary Language: English

Content:
Informant – “The lore is that you can only go through the gate once as a Freshman and you can only leave through the gate as a senior or you won’t graduate.”

JK – “So how do you get onto the campus then?”

Informant – “This is just the main gate. There are other gates.”

Context:
Informant – “I heard it on an official college tour.”

Analysis:
When you are college student, your campus can feel like your whole world. You can lose track of the outside world and become totally immersed in your college’s culture. This superstition is an exaggeration of that feeling. You enter this new world as a freshman, and then you are trapped there until you graduate. Passing through the gate before graduation is like leaving the world too early (i.e. not graduating).

Senior Assassins

Nationality: American
Age: 19
Occupation: Student
Residence: Laguna Niguel, CA
Performance Date: April 9, 2018
Primary Language: English

My friend was already aware of my folklore project. While getting coffee, we were happened to be telling stories about our experiences in high school. I realized this would be perfect for this assignment. GG is the informant, PH is myself. Another friend was sitting with us, who I did not collect folklore from, but she does talk during the following collection. She is CC. Both GG and CC are from Orange County, though they were from different cities and did not know each other before attending USC. Both of their high schools had the following tradition.

PH: Do you have any folklore about your school, like stories everyone would tell, or things everyone would do?

The informant then told me of a legend/superstition, which is documented separately.

GG: Do games count?

PH: Yes!

GG: Our high school, senior year we had senior assassins. [This was not a tradition that only happened during her senior year, but it was a tradition you had to be a senior to partake in.]

CC: Oh, we had that too!

PH: Okay, could you explain what that is?

GG: You didn’t have that?

PH: No.

GG: Basically, everyone who wants to be in it has to sign up and they get assigned someone they need to shoot with a water gun.

PH: Oh, yeah I’ve heard of that. I’ve seen it in TV shows actually.

GG: Yeah, and the last one standing gets money.

PH: Woah, what?

GG: Yeah, supposedly, but I never heard of anyone actually getting any money.