Christ Church

[wellinghall]

Christ Church v Nottingham, University Challenge, 8pm tonight (Monday 7 January), BBC2

(Anyone who can suggest a connection between Christ Church and a badger gets a bonus mark ... )

Comments

Connections?

[wemyss.livejournal.com]

Other than Effie Ruskin on the one hand and Kenneth Grahame's son Alistair on the other?

[ladyofastolat.livejournal.com]

The mallard ceremony of All Soul's College is well-known to scholars of bizarre ceremonies. Few, however, have heard of the Secret Badger Ceremony of Christ Church. This ceremony, reputed to date back to the earliest days of the College, holds the distinction of being, perhaps, the rarest regular festival still extant, held as it is only in years where a full moon falls on February 29th.

Only twelve in the College are chosen to participate in the ceremony. It is considered a great honour, and all who participate in it are lastingly changed by it. They prepare for weeks, fasting, and crafting their ceremonial underpants. On the night before the ceremony, they hold vigil. As midnight nears, they engage in the ritual Badger Dance, which tells, in music, poetry and dance, the life cycle of the badger. As morning nears, they fall silent, only to greet the sunrise with the traditional procession, in which they follow a mysterious figure dressed as a badger spirit, while singing the Badger Song. Only two lines have slipped out past the secrecy that surrounds the event:

"Come, my lads, let's go and cadge a
Very large and whopping badger."

cf. the Merton Ferret Ceremony, the St John's Gerbil Fest, Magdalen Toad-Upping, the Exeter Wicker Vole ritual etc. etc.

[wellinghall.livejournal.com]

Trust you! :-)

[wellinghall.livejournal.com]

Creatrix said, "How did she find out?" ;-)

[beckyc.livejournal.com]

I dunno. People mentioning Christ Church always reminds me of being on a tram that crashed into a building. But that happened in Christchurch, which is entirely different, and doesn't feature any badgers at all (that I saw).

[wellinghall.livejournal.com]

One was named after the other.

Depending which one you were in, of course.

[beckyc.livejournal.com]

One was named after the other.

It's very hard to ignore that in Christchurch - the whole city screams "Hello, we're terribly Oxbridge, you know" (with a bit of St Andrews thrown in). They even punt there (the punt that I saw was like neither Oxford nor Cambridge punts though). And one side of the river is Cambridge Terrace and the other Oxford. It was about the only place in NZ where the locals (who always ask where you are from) had heard of Cambridge (unless you say "where the famous university is", because lots of people have heard of that)

[the-marquis.livejournal.com]

Both are best seen at night and smell faintly of worms?

[shanith.livejournal.com]

Christ church is full of people of people who work hard but aren't very clever - therefore Hufflepuffs... the Hufflepuff animal is the badger!

[wellinghall.livejournal.com]

Creatrix said, "Work? We didn't work!" ;-)