Traditions
| Tradition | Significance |
|---|---|
| blanket toss | blanket toss of senior class members after the last waltz at the Grad Ball |
| 'change of command ceremony' | The former commandant offers farewell and best wishes to the college and to the new Commandant. The new commandant accepts a first salute as the cadet wing marches past. |
| College Coin | Every new officer cadet is issued a challenge coin upon completion of First Year Orientation Period. The coin is engraved with the name of the college in French and English surrounding the college badge on the obverse. The cadet's college number and the motto is in both languages. |
| college toast | CMR toast to absent comrades meaning those who have fallen in action or who had died |
| Feux de joie | an honour guard perform a rifle salute with field artillery, or more commonly, rifles using blank ammunition. |
| Freedom of the fort | Officer cadets are equal independently of their year. They are also allowed to remove their headgear. |
| Jacket exchange | CMR Director of Cadets exchanges tunics with I Year Officer Cadet at CMR Christmas Dinner. |
| Just passing by | When a graduate of the CMR pilots an aircraft in the vicinity of Saint-Jean, Quebec, he or she conducts an impromptu airshow over the college. |
| Obstacle course race | gruelling course for recruits set up by the cadets' immediate predecessors, memorialized by a sculpture |
| Old 18 | First year cadets are required to memorize the names of the first class in the order of their college numbers. |
| Old Brigade | Alumni who entered military college 50 or more years before wear unique berets and ties, have the Right of the Line on reunion weekend memorial parades, and present the college cap badge to the first-year cadets on the First Year Badging Parade. Each class traditionally marks its 50-year anniversary and entry into the Old Brigade with a gift. |
| Shouldering professors | at closing exercises, cadets carried professors around the room |
| Skylarks | annual class practical joke or prank e.g. "The Great Plane Robbery" 1957; A cadet drove the CMR Rempart zamboni on Gouin Boulevard in July 1984. |
| Sweetheart broach | officer cadets gave their dates an enamel brooch in lieu of a corsage for formal dances at Christmas and graduation. The museum retains several examples. |
Read more about this topic: Royal Military College Saint-Jean
Famous quotes containing the word traditions:
“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)