Traditions
From CTYIwiki
This is an article about the general traditions at CTYI. The rule for editing this page is that a 'tradition' only qualifies as such if it is well-known and has been present at CTYI for at least 3 years.
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Hitchhiker's Guide Thursday/Dressing-gown Thursday
As all well educated people know, the earth will be destroyed on a Thursday, just after breakfast. The second Thursday, during CTYI<(though the tradition can be acceptably extended to every thursday), it is tradition to wear a dressing gown and to carry a towel around at all times, just in case. This rule has only been broken twice, the first, in Session 2 2006, CTYIers missed the boat and were only allowed to wear the dressing gown after lunch. This was because the boss stepped in and forbade the tradition while the Minister for Education, Mary Hanafin, was visiting. The second was in Session 2 2010, when VIPs were visiting and CTYIers were stopped from wearing their gowns.
Also see: The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, 42
Pirate Wednesday
The second Wednesday of the session, many CTYIers traditionally dress up as pirates. The popularity of this differs from year to year and from session to session..It may be noted that it was quite popular in session 2 2005. Popularity dropped resulting in very few pirates in '06. Veterinary Science in session 1 '07 brought along its rebirth by dressing as pirates in Dublin Zoo. The monkeys were traumatised. After this, the tradition of Pirate Wednesday blossomed into a full tradition, almost as widely known as Dressing-gown Thursday. This tradition has even manifested itself into having a residential pirate in Session 2 each year, passing along the title of CTYI Pirate.
Formal Friday
Formal Friday takes place on both the first and second Fridays of the session where many students dress up in formal attire. The levels of formality vary between students; a three piece suit to simply wearing a tie with your ordinary outfit. Although it is one of the less memorable traditions it has grown wildly in popularity in the last two years and has almost as many participants as even Dressing-gown Thursday!
Vinnie's Lectures
The lecturer of archaeology, Vinnie, annually hosts an educational and informative talk on archaeology for the students instead of activities on one day of the session. However Vinnie has never added or changed the contents and possibly the jokes in his talk. Thus many people have heard the talk three, four or even five times in their life. However, the talk is to raise money for charity and students are encouraged to donate money as they enter the Terence Larkin theatre. Many might argue that an absence of the lecture would prove more profitable. It was set to no longer occur in 2010 but the CTYI management managed to pursade Vinnie to continue the trend.
The 'Points' game a.k.a TOGS
The Points game is a game that runs through the whole Session of CTYI from the very start of the opening ceremony to whenever the last person leaves the campus and includes all students. In the Points game, the student wins points for 'scoring' another student. The students work in teams of RA groups and compete with other RA Groups to earn the most Points. 1 point is earned for meeting a student of the opposite sex. Although the precise rules differ from year to year and session to session, bonus points can be awarded for Same-sex meets,Frigid meets and couples. Scoring within RA group gets no points because that's too easy.
The points rewarded are very high in the unlikely event that a student scores a member of staff. This amount of points starts with RAs of the opposite sex and goes all the way up the lines to Colm, who is an automatic win for an RA group if any member of their group scores him. However, considering the points are so high for scoring any member of staff, it would more than likely be an automatic win anyway if any member of staff is scored.
Session Two '08 saw a massive increase in the amount of points that most RA groups had, with the winning group, Trish's, having 151 points, compared with usually no more than 30 in previous sessions(Trish's group had Operation S.L.U.T.(Scoring Lots Using Teamwork) in place). This is due to people competing with each other (even sometimes within a group) to see who could get the most points, especially at the last disco. It should be noted that the majority of points were achieved at the last disco, with most groups more than tripling their scores.
-A suggestion was made at one point that it should be 1 point for a meet across the board, regardless of the genders of the participants, to ensure that the team who scores the most people will also score the most points.
-In Session 2 09, the rules were changed regarding those in your RA group. It was three points if you scored someone in your own RA group and the RA found out but five if you managed to keep the RA in the dark.))
-The points game was "banned" in Session 2 2010 by the administrators of CTYI, due to some people feeling they were being pressured into making out with people for points.
-In 2011 the points game was renamed TOGS (The Optional Game Of Shifting) by Sorcha & Caoimhe and points were referred to as "pop-tarts" so CTYIzens could speak freely of points to their RAs without getting them in trouble.
For a more comprehensive list of rules, check out the'Points' game page.
Nutsac
Nutsac is a popular game among many CTYIzens. It is usually played with a stale canteen bread roll (a.k.a. a canteen bread roll.)
Spoon Bracelets
Spoon Bracelets have been very popular in CTYI for many years. To make one, all you have to do is "borrow" a spoon form the canteen and bend it around your wrist. Also works with forks for that extra level of badass. Wearing cutlery bracelets was banned on the second Tuesday of Session 2 '11. This led to many students throwing their cutlery in the bin before leaving the canteen.
Themed discos
Most of the discos will have a certain theme usually picked by the RAs themselves, or, as happened in '06 and '08, RA groups may each have a different theme. Sometimes students are given specific characters (as in '07) or different cards ('08) and must try to find the other matching student during the disco. The themes are not compulsary but usually about 60-70% of people partake in them except for the 3rd disco, which is usually not themed, but if it is nobody abides by it.
In Session 1 2009, there was an American Themed disco for the 4th of July. In Session 1 2011, the RAs chose a Beach theme purely because one Ra (Danny) had a beach shirt he wanted o wear that day.
Previous Themes have included:
Black and White
Animals
Heaven and Hell
Rave (Matrix)
Reservoir Dogs
Boy Band
Agent Smith
Beach
Sportalians
America
Superheroes
Mobsters
Harry Potter
Last Day
Although the last class is a sad occasion, many classes celebrate with lively events such as parties. During the Last Day students pass around their notebooks for their classmates to sign. Every 'last' event in CTYI, from classes to activities to dinner, is referred to as the 'Ultimate' event, eg. Ultimate Packing. Note the exception of frisbee. Frisbee is ALWAYS referred to as "Ultimate Frisbee". After the disco on the final evening, a Candlelit Ceremony takes place. Also, a Passion Fruit Ceremony takes place on the last morning, just before everyone goes home.
Muffin stock
A series of Corridor parties between Daithà and Tadhg's Ra groups where muffins, supplied by Colm Gleeson were consumed with a good spread of nutella. Songs about unborn babies were droned out on the folk guitar and a merry olde time was had by all! The survivors of these two RA groups are expected to go on with this new tradition into the following years, hopefully each year shall be as successful as Muffinstock 2kaii9+1.(2010). A Good Time is had by all!
