Traditions
Throughout the year, students participate in many traditions, some dating to the earliest days of the school. The classes compete during Spirit Week and the competition culminates on Field Day. The school hosts an annual fundraiser, the Spirit Gala, in the fall. Homerooms adopt a family and provide Christmas Baskets during December. The gifts are blessed at Golden Mass, usually celebrated by the Bishop. March is Mission Month, in which students raise money for local, national and international charities through a Mission Mania event with McQuaid Jesuit High School, crafts sold by seniors, and other school-wide fundraisers. Arts Fest provides students a chance to show off their talents; this day-long event includes indoor and outdoor performance assemblies, a concert from a local professional group, and hour-long workshops in various areas taught by teachers and other professionals. In May, many girls take their fathers to the Father Daughter Dinner Dance.
During May, the juniors receive their class rings, a silver ring with the Mercy emblem, in a Mass during the day. The juniors then go to Junior Prom in the evening, with many girls getting ready together in the afternoon. Towards the end of May, May Day is held. A senior is elected May Queen and has a court of peer elected juniors and seniors that help her organize the ceremony. After Mary is crowned in the Grotto, the seniors prepare for Senior Ball. The year ends in June with the Moving Up Ceremony where the classes provide advice to the classes below them. At the end, the student body moves up seats in the auditorium and the seniors join hands and walk to the stage.
Retreats are also a part of Mercy tradition. Freshman retreat is held in school, and Sophomore and Junior retreats are a day long event. Senior retreat is a sleepover at Camp Stella Maris and is one of the last times the senior class will spend together.
Read more about this topic: Our Lady Of Mercy High School (New York)
Famous quotes containing the word traditions:
“But generally speaking philistinism presupposes a certain advanced state of civilization where throughout the ages certain traditions have accumulated in a heap and have started to stink.”
—Vladimir Nabokov (1899–1977)
“I think a Person who is thus terrifyed [sic] with the Imagination of Ghosts and Spectres much more reasonable, than one who contrary to the Reports of all Historians sacred and profane, ancient and modern, and to the Traditions of all Nations, thinks the Appearance of Spirits fabulous and groundless.”
—Joseph Addison (1672–1719)
“And all the great traditions of the Past
They saw reflected in the coming time.
And thus forever with reverted look
The mystic volume of the world they read,
Spelling it backward, like a Hebrew book,
Till life became a Legend of the Dead.”
—Henry Wadsworth Longfellow (1809–1882)