Super Hall

In my last post, I showed a picture of our dining hall.  It was only set up for a regular dinner, but three times a week we have optional (slightly more expensive but with better food) Formal Halls.  Of these three, friday night's is a "Super Hall," as since this Friday's was the first one of term, it was particularly well attended.

While many other colleges have a "high table" where the Master and the Fellows sit, it was specified that Churchill will have no such thing.  So the table for those important people is at the same level as everyone else, which I quite like.

Basically, for formal hall, you get quite dressed up (although we don't wear robes at Churchill, other colleges do) and have a nice three course dinner with all of your friends.  However, there are some traditions associated with these halls that make them more than just a nice meal.

First, the grace is always given before the meal in Latin.  Some colleges have long ones, but again, because we're chill, ours is quite short.

There's also a "game" associated with formal hall called "pennying."  This is a game whereby you drop a penny in someone's wine glass and they then have to drink the whole glass right there.  It's because the Queen's head is on the penny, and you wouldn't want the Queen to drown in your glass so you have to get rid of the liquid quickly.  Since I had never heard of this game before, I got pennyed quite a few times...

At the end of the meal, a gong rings, and you all stand up, and toast: To the Queen, to the Master, to Lord Winston (maybe in that order, I forget).  And then the meal is over.  This time though, it was also our Master's birthday, so we sang to him before he left!

Formal Hall is quite a lovely tradition and I'm excited to get to see how it is done in other colleges.  The MCRs at each college often organize formal swaps, so on one day all the Churchillians go to another college, and then we host them here some other time.  Plus a lot of my friends are in different colleges, so I'm trying to swing invitations!