Bates College traditions

The traditions of Bates College, a New England liberal arts college in Lewiston, Maine, are deeply embedded in the student life of the institution and are well-known on campus and nationally. Many of the traditions presented by the college are paralleled by other members of the Little Ivies, New England Small College Athletic Conference and Ivy League schools along with the OxBridge schools. Bates has a long history of tradition with fellow Maine school Bowdoin College; the two colleges often play elaborate pranks on each other and Waterville-based college, Colby College.

Nearly a century old, this tradition "celebrates cold and snowy weather, which is a trademark of fierce Maine winters". The college has held, on odd to even years, a Winter Carnival which comprises a themed four-day event that includes performances, dances, and games. Past Winter Carnivals have included "a Swiss Olympic skier swooshing down Mount David", faculty and student football games, faculty and administration skits, over-sized snow sculptures, "serenading of the dormitories", and an expeditions to Camden. When Edmund Muskie was a student at the college, he participated in a torch relay from Augusta to Lewiston in celebration of the 1960 Winter Olympics.Robert F. Kennedy, with his naval classmates, built a replica of their boat back in Massachusetts out of snow in front of Smith Hall, during their carnival. This tradition is second only to Dartmouth College as the oldest of its kind in the United States.

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