While all colleges have their share of customs and rituals, some of them indeed quite strange, Yale’s deep roots in traditionalism has given this Ivy League school the title of Weirdest of All Time. Here are 8 of the oddest, strangest, craziest Yale Traditions ever:

Freshman Hazing:

Yalies took this to extremes. The Sophomore Class yearbook listing often included the title: “Nos timeunt Freshmanes” (Freshmen Fear Us). The school itself had a code of ethics for Freshman, which basically required the incoming class to pay complete deference to upperclassmen to the point of complete absurdity. A new student would often be awakened by banging on his door while those outside shouted, “Let us in Freshie, if you don’t want to die.” Once inside the room, the lights would be dimmed, and the student ordered to sit or stand on a table. He was then required to make a speech, sing a song, recite a Euclidean proposition, or some other silly request. If he refused, he was beaten with canes. If he defended himself, he was covered with a blanket and “smoked out”, where all those in attendance would blow tobacco smoke under the blanket until the student either became sick or passed out.

It was also not unusual for a select freshman to be picked out for “trimming”. The lucky student would be taken out into the wilderness, stripped, and would then have his hair cut off. He was often marked on the cheek with a symbol (using a chemical compound which would make the mark visible for days), humiliated in other ways, which some witnesses would only describe as “unmentionable”. With hands tied behind his back and a gag in his mouth, he would either be left to find his way back to civilization, or if lucky, merely dropped inside the locked gates of the Yale cemetery, where he would be found by the campus police in the morning.

Wooden Spoon Presentation and Promenade:

A 9 member student committee (called the Cochleauriati, literally meaning “spoon crowned with laurels”) would elect the year’s Spoon Man. This individual would be presented with a 2″ gold spoon pin and a three foot long black walnut spoon with their name and class inscribed upon it. A large banquet was held, after which the participants would storm around the campus, waking everyone they could, and chase them with wooden spoons. A good time was guaranteed for all.

The Burial of Euclid

Every year, at the completion of the Euclidean Geometry course, an elaborate “burial” ritual was held, complete with devil costumes, shining swords, and a procession of silent “mourners” who would march while pointing to their destination, a building called “The Temple”. Silly songs that played on geometry terminology were sung, such as:

He’ll try angling with the lines that bored us,
In the Stygian wave.
His accounts all squared, He hath departed
From his earthly sphere.

We’ve described the space of his existence,
In these given lines.
And we’ll burn old Euclid in the distance,
Beneath the waving pines.

The textbooks were piled up, a red hot poker was then driven through the pile. The books were then solemnly carried to a distant location, accompanied by the banging of a broken drum. As an effigy of Euclid was buried, the books were doused with whiskey and set alight. All in attendance would moan loudly until the books burned to ashes. The ashes were then gathered into an urn, which would then be placed in a prominent spot.

Bottle Night

This tradition began innocently enough, when a freshman dropped a bottle of ink from his window in an attempt to scare two arguing drunks below. This turned into Bottle Night, an annual event in which students would hurl bottles of water out of their dormitory windows. I have no idea why.

The Pass of Thermopolae

Freshmen were annually forced to run a gauntlet of two lines of upperclassmen that lined a narrow passage between two buildings. The idea was to avoid having the crap beat out of you.

Plaster Night

In 1923, some plaster fell from the ceiling of the newly repaired Timothy Dwight residential building. The faculty administrator threw a banquet, complete with stupid songs to commemorate the event, calling it “The End of the Plastercine Age”. It became an annual celebration. Go Yale!

Bladderball Day

Mass quantities of alcohol were consumed at breakfast. Everyone would crowd into the freshman courtyard, where the campus police had closed and locked the gates. They would stagger around, waiting for the 5 foot diameter “bladder ball” to be dropped. They would then attempt to maneuver the ball over the gate to score a “goal”, after which the gates would be opened, and all in attendance would run out into the streets and chase the ball, all the while screaming and stumbling over one another. Kind of like the Running of the Bulls, but without any pomp or circumstance.

The Skull and Bones Society

One of the most secretive of many secret societies, The Skull and Bones had their own share of creepy, funny, or completely unfathomable customs. Conspiracy theorists have long held that the Skull and Bones are the central players in the Illuminati, a close knit group bent on population control and world domination. The fact that Presidents William Howard Taft, George Herbert Walker Bush, and George Bush Junior are prominently featured on paintings within the inner sanctum of the Skull and Bones tends to directly contradict any proof of such world-dominating capability. They are, however, enamored with the number 322, which happens to be the year that the Greek orator Demosthenes died (322 BC). The S&B believe this to be the day that Eulogia, the goddess of eloquence, ascended into heaven, where she remained until the year 1832, when she decided to take up residence in the Skull and Bones temple at Yale (It appears that George Bush Jr. missed his appointments with this goddess of eloquence).

Consequently, it is a written Skull and Bones law that whenever a Bonesman hears the words “Bonesman”, “Skull and Bones”, or “322″, he must immediately vacate a room. It is rumored that a rather well known Washington reporter considered testing this theory out during one of Bush Jr.’s press conferences, but never worked up the nerve. There are, however, many accounts of women who dated Bonesman, where either on purpose or as a joke, one of the forbidden phrases were uttered, and those who were members of S&B immediately vacated the premises, no matter the event or location. One enterprising roommate of a bonesman often whispered “322″ at the door of the shower if his roomie was taking too much time.

It’s a shame that reporter never tried it out on the President.