Frolicking freshers at St Andrews University work themselves up into a lather to celebrate traditional ‘Raisin Monday’ party

This is the moment students at Scotland’s oldest university cover one another in shaving foam in a long-standing tradition where they give their mentors a ‘pound of raisins’ as a thank you.

The University of St Andrews has a long-standing tradition of ‘academic parents’ – older students who have ‘children’ to look after and mentor throughout their first year. 

They traditionally bond on ‘Raisin Weekend’ in Fife – named after the institution’s tradition of freshers giving their ‘parents’ a pound of raisins as a thank you for welcoming and guiding them in the next stage of their lives.

The celebrations are believed to date back to when the university was founded in 1413. Nowadays, the raisin gift is more likely to be a bottle of wine.

Today’s Raisin Monday involved ‘parents’ dressing up their academic children and having a foam fight across the lower college lawn.

The University of St Andrews has a long-standing tradition of ‘academic parents’ – older students who have ‘children’ to look after and mentor throughout their first year

More recently the tradition is to provide freshers with something difficult or embarrassing to carry – anything from a piece of fruit to a grand piano or an inflated chicken

Students take part in the Raisin Monday foam fight on St Salvator’s Lower College Lawn

‘Parents and children’ traditionally bond on ‘Raisin Weekend’ in Fife

Historically, the ‘parents’ would expect the ‘children’ to present a receipt written in Latin, and failure to produce one resulted in a dousing at the local fountain – or, more recently, shaving foam.

In modern times the tradition is to provide freshers with something difficult or embarrassing to carry – anything from a piece of fruit to a grand piano.

A statement from the University of St Andrews student union said, ‘Raisin Weekend is one of the biggest traditions in St Andrews, so called because children traditionally gave their academic parents a pound of raisins as a thank you for welcoming them to the town.

‘The St Andrews academic family is unique, as it has always been passed organically from student to student.

The celebrations are believed to date back to when the university was founded in 1413. Nowadays, the raisin gift is more likely to be a bottle of wine

Raisin Monday, held this year on October 16, involved ‘parents’ dressing up their academic children and having a foam fight across the lower college lawn

Raisin is about celebrating new lifelong friends, and taking part in a tradition that makes St Andrews different, the student union says

Raisin Weekend is named after the university’s historic tradition of Freshers giving their ‘parents’ a pound of raisins as a thank you for welcoming and guiding them in the next stage of their lives

Hundreds of freshers flooded  onto the grass where they were showered with foam

‘Raisin is about celebrating new lifelong friends, and taking part in a tradition that makes St Andrews different. It’s not all about drinking, it’s about having fun and making new friends.

‘On Raisin Monday, academic children typically meet at their parents’ home in the morning, where they will be dressed up in costumes and given a “Raisin receipt” to carry with them on their way to Lower College Lawn.

‘There, hundreds of academic children will flood onto the grass where they will be showered with foam from foam cannons and can mess around covering their academic siblings and friends in foam, while their parents watch and take pictures from the sidelines.’