Hey Day 2009

Today was Hey Day, the day at the University of Pennsylvania when the junior class are officially pronounce seniors by the president of the University, currently Dr. Amy Gutmann. Traditionally, the juniors wear red shirts and styrofoam hats (faux straw skimmers) and carry canes (once mahogany, now bamboo). There is a parade through campus which ends at College Hall, where the president emerges and declares them all seniors. In recent years (since, say, 2002-03), the event has also degenerated into a food fight, where first seniors (and now other juniors as well) dump every food (primarily flour, mustard, and ketchup, but also eggs, soy sauce, milk, raw meat, and fruit jam) onto the juniors as they march by. The last few years, I've noticed that the Asian students engage in the food-fight aspect of the day with much more vigor than others. I'm not sure why, but Dan theorized that it's an excuse to get messy for a change.

It is also a tradition to get completely plastered for Hey Day.

There are lots more of my Hey Day photos on flickr, but here are some of my faves:







The best friend of the 2nd woman from the right was in Spain this semester, and thus missed Hey Day, so she brought a cardboard effigy and took it with her on the parade:









The Penn Band leads the parade from the west end of Campus down to College Green:







The police guarding the steps of College Hall, and the president at the top:



President Gutmann speaks to the junior class:





Every year a few students get into the trees and the police usually get them back down:



The aftermath:





The last Hey Day shot I took: