Ziyuan Wu (William), Grade 11
UWC China
Most people have their “unique” memories in UWC: a trip to the local community, a bike ride to a nearby town, hanging out with friends...and of course, many others. These experiences are quite novel for a non-uwcer, but still pretty common among UWC students. However, there is something that each student can only experience in their house: a house initiation.
A house initiation is a ceremony which brings new house member into a small community, which usually consist of 30 to 40 members from different countries that live on the same floor in the dorm building. It has been a tradition since the founding of UWCCSC.
Among 11 houses in CSC, I believe my house, Ikhaya, has the most unique house initiation. Different from going around other houses during their house meeting, putting masks on firsties, and splash water on them, our house initiation starts from a very old story. In the first year of CSC, there was a boy named Munache who worked starving at night catching up the deadline. He came to the common room, looking for food, and found nothing but a pineapple that happen to be rotten. Unfortunately, Munache had no idea that the pineapple was rotten, and he ate it piece by piece until it filled his stomach. The next morning, the house members were deeply surprised to find that the rotten pineapple has disappeared magically. Some say that the cleaner has taken it away; others believe that it was the HOH (head of house). But cleaners never appear at night, and HOH says that he didn’t take it away. No one believes that someone would eat a rotten pineapple until Munache convinced that. To praise the pineapple who saved Munache from starving, the house members decided to name it Jason (for the reason that no one knows now). Ever since then, we have let our new members pledge their loyalty to Jason, who represents the spirit of sacrifice and helping others.
At the beginning of the ceremony, we rang everyone up and group them to the common room. After that, new members of Ikhaya listened to the story of Jason and worship him by drinking a special drink mixed with milk, coffee, pineapple juice, and cola, then kneeled in front of his grave (we mimic a Chinese grave with Jason’s name on it). Finally, they walked within two lines of old Ikhayans (the way we call our house members), took the electric candles on their hands, and place them in front of Jason’s grave.
The whole process took about half an hour. Frankly speaking, it’s never easy to get up at midnight, and the process may seem uninteresting and ridiculous. Nevertheless, this is a good opportunity to enhance the house spirit and unite the members of the house. I can still remember last year when I had no anticipation of this event and being forced to kneel down and knighted, which I think is the most irreplaceable night in my life, and I sincerely hope that our newcomers can think as what I did.
A house initiation is a ceremony which brings new house member into a small community, which usually consist of 30 to 40 members from different countries that live on the same floor in the dorm building. It has been a tradition since the founding of UWCCSC.
Among 11 houses in CSC, I believe my house, Ikhaya, has the most unique house initiation. Different from going around other houses during their house meeting, putting masks on firsties, and splash water on them, our house initiation starts from a very old story. In the first year of CSC, there was a boy named Munache who worked starving at night catching up the deadline. He came to the common room, looking for food, and found nothing but a pineapple that happen to be rotten. Unfortunately, Munache had no idea that the pineapple was rotten, and he ate it piece by piece until it filled his stomach. The next morning, the house members were deeply surprised to find that the rotten pineapple has disappeared magically. Some say that the cleaner has taken it away; others believe that it was the HOH (head of house). But cleaners never appear at night, and HOH says that he didn’t take it away. No one believes that someone would eat a rotten pineapple until Munache convinced that. To praise the pineapple who saved Munache from starving, the house members decided to name it Jason (for the reason that no one knows now). Ever since then, we have let our new members pledge their loyalty to Jason, who represents the spirit of sacrifice and helping others.
At the beginning of the ceremony, we rang everyone up and group them to the common room. After that, new members of Ikhaya listened to the story of Jason and worship him by drinking a special drink mixed with milk, coffee, pineapple juice, and cola, then kneeled in front of his grave (we mimic a Chinese grave with Jason’s name on it). Finally, they walked within two lines of old Ikhayans (the way we call our house members), took the electric candles on their hands, and place them in front of Jason’s grave.
The whole process took about half an hour. Frankly speaking, it’s never easy to get up at midnight, and the process may seem uninteresting and ridiculous. Nevertheless, this is a good opportunity to enhance the house spirit and unite the members of the house. I can still remember last year when I had no anticipation of this event and being forced to kneel down and knighted, which I think is the most irreplaceable night in my life, and I sincerely hope that our newcomers can think as what I did.
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