Word: class-day
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Down to the end of the eighteenth century, the official language of the college was Latin, and the Class-day orators seldom attempted the vernacular. But the Latin verse was difficult and the poets from the first appear to have written in English. Toward the end of the last century the orators began to incline toward their mother tongue and this occasioned a remonstrance from the faculty in the form of a regulation, passed in 1802, that "in future no performance but a valedictory oration in the Latin language * * * be permitted" on Class-day. The faculty was soon forced from...
...order of exercises for Class-day was as follows: At 10 o'clock in the morning the class escorted the President, professors and tutors to the chapel, preceded by a band playing solemn music. The exercises began with a short invocation by the President, and after the Scriptural reading, this was followed by a longer prayer of much fervor. The poem was then read and the singing club, accompanied by a band, contributed a song. The valedictory completed the programme, and in stately procession the class escorted the officers of the college to the President's house, where refreshments - wine...
...that the festivities of Class-day began to change, and in that year the custom arose of the Senior class treating all comers to iced punch in the afternoon of that day. From this time on, the solemnity of the occasion gradually disappeared...
...than the preceding one had been, and it became necessary for the authorities to institute a reform. President Quincy accordingly notified the Class-day committee of '38 that if there was any drinking or dancing on that day, the members of the committee would all lose their degrees. The class then decided to invite lad' and several members agreed to furnish spreads. This was permitted and in the afternoon the President removed his restriction on dancing and Class-day became a festival. Exhibition days had been for conviviality, but Class-day now appropriates this and the former soon died...
...exercises now extend over nearly the entire day, and are always preceded by the baccalaureate sermon on the Sunday before Class-day. On Class-day, as it is now celebrated, the class assembles in front of Holworthy Hall and headed by the class chaplain marches to Appleton Chapel, where prayer is offered by one of the preachers to the University. Then the class takes breakfast with one of the officers, where the milder stimulus of coffee does duty for the wine and punch of earlier days...