Dragon Day photos!
From Cornell Alumni Magazine
MAY/JUNE 2002 VOLUME 104 NUMBER 6:
Dragon Day, an annual event celebrated every spring either on St. Patrick's Day, or just before spring break, has its roots in the antics of Willard Dickerman Straight, 1901. While on campus, Straight attended the School of Architecture, and from his early days as a freshman, developed a reputation as a prankster, leader, and developer of class unity. The idea was conceived from Straight's belief that there should be a distinctive College of Architecture Day. The first day was celebrated with the hanging of orange and green banners (orange to appease the campus's Protestant population), shamrocks, and other thematic decorations on Lincoln Hall, then home to the College of Architecture. Later, the theme of celebrating St. Patrick's success in driving the serpents out of Ireland also became attached to the holiday. History has not made clear when the first Dragon Day (in contemporary tradition) was held, though it was sometime between 1897 and 1901. How the first parade evolved into a rite of initiation for the freshman Architecture class--ending with the burning of the dragon on the Arts Quad--has also not been revealed. Contemporary Dragon Day celebrations, with a dragon constructed by the first-year architects, and the associated ceremonies, began some time in the 1950s when the snakes previously used "grew up." Prior to this time, the holiday was still celebrated as primarily College of Architecture Day, and the theme was less focused around the dragon. The rivalry between the College of Architecture and the College of Engineering students before and during Dragon Day celebrations seems to have simply developed over time--perhaps as a means of expressing opposition to the architects having a full day for themselves.
