Scarfing
Welcome to RVA, the place where nouns become verbs. Students here go hammocking on a beautiful day, or if they are feeling especially mischievous they may go ponding (throwing someone in the school science pond). But what I find really strange is the tradition of scarfing. Here’s how it works:
Several weeks before Class Night, the Junior girls meet to decide which Junior boy each of them will “scarf.” There are certain rules, like a girl can’t scarf her boyfriend or the person that took her to Banquet. On the day that scarfing officially begins, the girls perform a dance during Chai Time, which they will perform for the rest of the week, adding boys to the dance each day as they are “caught.” Immediately after the dance that kicks things off, guys go running away, trying to avoid having a girl throw her scarf around his neck. (This year the guys all ran into the nearest guys bathroom and started a Rugby chant – I know…weird!)
So as of today, all the Junior guys joined in the dance with scarves around their necks – quite a sight! So they will accompany the girl who scarfed them to Class Night tomorrow evening. Don’t worry – the only dancing they will do on Class Night is swing or line dancing 🙂 But that’s not all. They have to dress up in matching costumes!
Fortunately this year we’ve only had a couple injuries during this strange ritual. A guy makes it the entire rugby season without incident but then gets taken down by a girl with a scarf!
To be honest, I’m not sure what the spiritual parallel is or the lessons we are trying to teach them in this. But it sure has been entertaining to watch!