{"id":501,"date":"2012-04-18T11:59:38","date_gmt":"2012-04-18T15:59:38","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www6b.wittenberg.edu\/lib\/blog\/wordpress\/?p=501"},"modified":"2012-04-18T11:59:41","modified_gmt":"2012-04-18T15:59:41","slug":"from-the-archives-alma-mater-day-at-wittenberg","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.wittprojects.net\/library_blog\/?p=501","title":{"rendered":"From the Archives — Alma Mater Day at Wittenberg"},"content":{"rendered":"

Alma Mater Day at Wittenberg University<\/strong>
\n

\"June<\/a>

June of 1925, Alma Mater Elsie Roth sits on her throne.<\/p><\/div><\/p>\n

For many years Wittenberg University used to have a unique celebration called Alma Mater Day.\u00a0 Now essentially a lapsed tradition, this elaborate pageant seems to be exclusive to Wittenberg.\u00a0 One of the most interesting features of this event is that it was entirely planned and enacted by female students.\u00a0 Initially conceived of in 1918 as a celebration of spring (sort of a May Day Fete), the female student body planned a pageant and crowned a May Day queen with accompanying dances and celebrations.\u00a0 However, by 1920 the May Day Queen morphed into the Alma Mater, a more serious and symbolic honor.\u00a0 Rather than simply celebrate spring, the event became a commemoration of the women of Wittenberg.\u00a0 Only women could plan the event, choose the Alma Mater, and participate in the festivities.<\/p>\n

\"Alma<\/a>

Alma Mater photos from the 1950's showing women dancing as part of the celebration.<\/p><\/div>The pageant centered on the crowning of the Alma Mater, the figurative representative of the spirit of Wittenberg and learning.\u00a0 The Alma Mater would be selected through a vote of the female student body, who were supposed to select a junior class woman who possessed \u201cscholarship, character, general attitude, poise, and service to the campus.\u201d\u00a0 Each year the festivities would also have a theme.\u00a0 In a 1939 article on Alma Mater day, student Mary Jane Shatger described the 1935 celebration:<\/p>\n

This pageant, which was entitled \u201cThe Awakening of Knowledge\u201d, portrayed the awakening and expansion of knowledge through the ages from the primitive to civilized times.\u00a0 The pageant starts with a processional, is led by the dancers and symbolic figures, and finally Alma Mater and her court.\u00a0 The procession winds over a hill, along the ridge and drops down into a lovely hollow while the orchestra plays \u201cPomp and Circumstance.\u201d\u00a0 The dancers take their places to one side and the Alma Mater is invested in a royal purple academic gown and cap, at the center of the hollow, by the Alma Mater of the preceding year.\u00a0 As Alma Mater and her court make their way to a terrace on one of the hillsides, all the spectators rise from their places on the surrounding hills and join in singing Wittenberg\u2019s Alma Mater.\u00a0 The dancers dressed in bright colors chosen to harmonize with the beautiful green of the background, then pay homage to Alma Mater in a series of symbolic dances.<\/em>
\n

\"Alma<\/a>

Alma Mater photo circa 1935 showing the pageant procession.<\/p><\/div>
\nIn this specific set of dances, a dancer representing knowledge slept in the grass until the dancers representing fields of learning such as Architecture, Poetry, Rhetoric, Literature and Geography came to awaken her. Staging such elaborate theatrics necessitated extensive planning and five departments were involved in organizing Alma Mater Day: English, Education, Home Economics, Physical Education and the School of Music.<\/p>\n

I haven\u2019t found any evidence of an Alma Mater day at any other school, at least not one with the same thematic and symbolic rationale.\u00a0 I find this event very compelling, not only because of the beautiful pictures and obviously painstaking preparation, but because it was entirely planned and executed by women.\u00a0 Indeed, the ethereal essence of Wittenberg as an institution is corporeally manifested as a woman.

\"June<\/a>

June 1925, to right, Alma Mater of 1924 Elizabeth Lasimer, to left, Alma Mater of 1925, Elsie Roth.<\/p><\/div><\/p>\n

I can\u2019t help but speculate about the fact that the emergence of this pageant of women coincides with the passage of the Nineteenth Amendment.\u00a0 The amendment first passed Congress in 1918, and was ratified after acceptance by all the states in 1920.\u00a0 The preliminary \u201cMay Day\u201d was first proposed at Wittenberg in 1918, and assumed its final form as Alma Mater Day\u2014a spiritual celebration of college and knowledge enacted by women\u2014in 1920.<\/p>\n

Today we still have an Alma Mater, and moreover we also have an Alma Lux.\u00a0 The days of pageants seem to have receded; replaced by more calm and sedate gender equality.\u00a0 Alma Mater or Lux, it\u2019s still an honor.<\/p>\n

Can’t we at least have a parade though?
\n

\"Alma<\/a>

Alma Mater Ceremony June 3, 1939<\/p><\/div><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Alma Mater Day at Wittenberg University For many years Wittenberg University used to have a unique celebration called Alma Mater Day.\u00a0 Now essentially a lapsed tradition, this elaborate pageant seems to be exclusive to Wittenberg.\u00a0 One of the most interesting features of this event is that it was entirely planned and enacted by female students.\u00a0 […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[14,21],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-501","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-archives","category-wittenberg-university"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.wittprojects.net\/library_blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/501","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.wittprojects.net\/library_blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.wittprojects.net\/library_blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.wittprojects.net\/library_blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/6"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.wittprojects.net\/library_blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=501"}],"version-history":[{"count":38,"href":"https:\/\/www.wittprojects.net\/library_blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/501\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":546,"href":"https:\/\/www.wittprojects.net\/library_blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/501\/revisions\/546"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.wittprojects.net\/library_blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=501"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.wittprojects.net\/library_blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=501"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.wittprojects.net\/library_blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=501"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}