From the Whiteout game at the start of the year to Head’s Holiday, Willy Gras, and Lock In, Williston prides itself on its traditions and strong student life.
Many of the school’s traditions, like ringing the Angelus, the bell currently on the Residential Quad in front of Wold House, date back to long before Williston Academy merged with the Northampton School for Girls in 1971.
Pittman Alley, a senior from Lake Forest Ill., believes traditions are an integral part of campus life.
“The importance of school tradition is to bring students together in a meaningful outside-of-the-classroom way,” said Pittman, who is also a member of the Wildest Cats. “I think as a boarding school, we should bring back some old traditions to celebrate the rich history of Williston.”
Beatrice Cody, a Williston Latin teacher and enthusiastic participant in the Winter Warmer concert, has made an effort to reintroduce some old Williston traditions.
“For the past few years I have been seeking to revive an old [Northampton School for Girls] tradition: the ringing of the Angelus. At one point in Northampton School for Girls history—around the middle of the 20th century—the Angelus was rung daily at random times,” Cody told The Willistonian. “When students and faculty heard the bell peal, they stopped whatever they were doing and enjoyed a moment of quiet reflection.”
Cody does, however, acknowledge that the tradition may not carry the same weight today.
“On a campus of Williston’s size, and at 3:15 p.m. on a Friday afternoon, its hard to expect everyone to uphold the original tradition—but I am hoping that we can at least maintain some connection to, and honor, our founding mothers at NSFG by continuing to ring the Angelus during the school year,” Cody added.
Ava Howard, a senior day student from Westfield, Mass., feels as though sometimes day students are not entirely included in a lot of these traditions, although they are invited.
“I think that a lot of these traditions we have, they’re very boarder oriented. Obviously day students are invited to events like Res Life, but they feel like more of an afterthought,” Ava said. “It would be nice to have day student specific traditions that are started by day students and kept running by day students.”
Ava proposed an idea on how to bring day students and boarders together with a new tradition.
“For the sake of the season we could start a ‘trunk or treat’ thing where the boarders are a part of it but they are not the ones planning it,” she explained. The event, Ava suggested, could be planned by the day students, use the day student lot, and “bring everyone together because boarders aren’t allowed to trick or treat.”
“Trunk or treat” is a spin on trick or treating where instead of decorating houses and a neighborhood, participants decorate their cars and give out candy from there instead.
Cody believes school traditions, whatever they are, only bring the community closer.
“The more traditions the better, in my view,” Cody said. “They bind us together and make our community stronger. They also leave us with special memories that live on long after we graduate,” she added.