It’s everyone’s favourite time of year: fall. The leaves falling crisply on cement and the trees are of a burnt red and spicy orange. You can smell the chilly bite, and you long for cider to be served. You get to wear your sweaters for the first time of the year, put on your softest socks, and drink hot beverages.
For Mount Holyoke students, however, this quarter-annual forthcoming of pure weathered bliss is augmented by our favourite college tradition: Mountain Day.
Mountain Day, as any alum or student can tell you, is one day in the fall, when school work just starts getting overwhelming, and you just need “that break(!)”. The current reigning president of the school has executive power of when to call for Mountain Day.
The best part of Mountain Day is that there is no warning, no student knows in advance. There’s only the ringing of the clock tower bells at seven a.m. to signify it’s Mountain Day.
Back when Mount Holyoke College was just a seminary, a building that we now know as Mary Lyon Hall, Mountain Day was only indicated by the ringing of the chapel bell. Today, however, there are posters and email blasts after the bell has been rung. The tradition is well kept and will continue on as a good way to break away.
One of the best parts about Mountain Day is that it encourages young students of a highly rigorous and academically stressful college to explore the outdoors, and enjoy the world and nature, which is a nice reminder to always put your mental health first, studies second. It’s a way to bond with the Mount Holyoke Community, and it is a testament to the history of our school. It is a way for Mount Holyoke to give back to its students. It’s a breath of fresh air (literally and figuratively) to hear a school actually doing something to give students a fun and unexpected break from their studies, rather than just working students into the ground.
Traditions keep history alive, and luckily, our traditions continue to this day. M&Cs are hosted every school night to provide students with snacks and study breaks. Pangy Day celebrates the strength of women as individuals and as a community. The Laurel Parade, where the chain of flowers carried across campus to recognize natural metamorphosis is celebrated as students become alums, and Mountain Day, where in few academic institutions, your school commands you to skip class and take a “me” day for over one hundred years.
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