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| 03-13-2003 | Previous edition: 03-12-2003 |
        
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Printer-friendly version History shows importance of Spring Break debauchery
I’ve decided that Spring Break is the greatest idea to hit college students since, well, summer break. Out of boredom, procrastination and pure morbid curiosity, I took a break from packing and daydreaming and decided to learn what I could about the grand history of Spring Break. The following is what I learned at springbreak.com, a veritable vault of trivia and well-intentioned advice related to spring break revelry. Spring Break dates back to the days of the philosophers of Ancient Greece. Apparently, young people celebrated the arrival of Spring by performing rituals that paid homage to Dionysus, the Greek God of wine. These rituals included drinking, dancing and the pursuit of happiness (read: getting laid). The Greeks still talk about the crazy toga party that Aristotle threw at the Parthenon during Spring Break of 1327 B.C. — They partied like it was A.D. 99. There is a dearth of literature describing the transition of spring break customs between the ancient times and the 18th century. I found this discouraging, but not surprising. After all, what really happened in that time? A bunch of rats gave a couple people the flu, Columbus got lost and Marie Antoinette ate her cake. Yadda yadda yadda. The spring break resurgence of the 19th and early 20th century was led by American college students who flocked south to get away from the pains of school. Florida was the primary destination, with Fort Lauderdale and Daytona Beach receiving most of the attention. Spring Break was a tame animal for most of this period, as much of the focus was on tanning and drinking. Then the ‘60s happened. Some groups of people are upset that the ‘60s brought such sexual promiscuity and drug use into mainstream culture. Students who like going crazy over break are not among those people. Thanks to the cultural revolution of that decade, Spring Break returned to its raucous roots and served as a forum to experience just about anything. Drinking and debauchery took a lesser role during the ‘80s, as students pursued alternate forms of spring entertainment like theme parks, road trips and camping. Fortunately, we can discount this anomaly as being the product of the same decade of cultural brilliance that brought us New Kids on the Block, hair bands, countless fashion nightmares and Ronald Reagan. The plague of consumerism and corporate takeovers that swept the country during the ‘90s did not spare Spring Break from its wrath. There was a drastic increase of corporate-funded activities, and MTV decided to spoil a form of pure, unadulterated revelry by turning it into a television show. Students also had more choices about where to go. Destinations like South Padre Island, Tex., Cancun, Mexico, and Lake Havasu, Ariz., challenged Florida’s dominance as the best place to go. How will history remember our years of Spring Break? That’s up to us. Just remember that so far, the ‘00s have seen the advent of "Girls Gone Wild" and other voyeuristic videos. So the next time your parents see footage of you flashing an entire bar during a wet T-shirt contest or guzzling beers from a two-story bong, you can reply "I was just studying the Classics — you know, Greece, philosophy, and all that stuff." Be safe, and have a great time. Nathan Hall is a senior in the Schools of Engineering. He can be reached at opinions@purdueexponent.org. Printer-friendly version |
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