Cornelliana Dragon! Dragon! Dragon! Joyful Jamboree Is a Big Red Rite of Spring Stories You May Like Boo! Celebrating a Spooktacular Time of Year on the Hill Raise a Glass to the Namesake of Zinck’s Night History Brothers: A Chat with Evan Earle ’02, MS ’14, and Corey Earle ’07 Fueled by first-year architecture students, the March celebration has been roaring on the Hill for 120+ years By Lindsay Lennon & Beth Saulnier Move over, bunnies and leprechauns: on East Hill, the other spring holidays take a backseat to a fantastic festival that’s quintessentially Cornellian. For more than a century, the campus community has celebrated the advent of mid-semester break with Dragon Day—a rite of spring that’s also a rite of passage for first-year architecture students. Over the generations, the occasion has been marked in more or less the same way. First, the architects spend weeks designing and building a magnificent mythical beast. Jolly green ... dragon? Then, they triumphantly parade it across campus to great revelry, amid chants of “Dragon! Dragon! Dragon! Oi! Oi! Oi!” Some years, engineering students create a phoenix to do “battle” with the dragon—symbolizing the traditional rivalry between the two professions—as the parade passes the Engineering Quad. Even the A.D. White statue (here in 2009) gets decked out for the occasion.The 2018 phoenix enjoys an elevated perch.In 2013, a blank white dragon was doused with colorful paint en route.Toilet paper litters the Arts Quad in 1996.The phoenix in 2013.During the transition between the full dragon burn and the current ban on fire, a “dragon’s egg” was set aflame in 2009.The phoenix in 2014.The dragon crew in 2016.The heads of previous dragons, on exhibit in Sibley Dome in 2015.The 2015 phoenix was hand-held. Physics students have even gotten in on the fun by crafting their own fantastical creature, a unicorn. For decades—before the advent of environmental sustainability concerns and state limitations on open burning—the event culminated in the dragon being set ablaze, generally in the middle of the Arts Quad. (Now, it’s merely disassembled, and the parts often reused.) A flaming dragon on a snowy day (left) and an early 1980s creation goes vertical. In the week or so leading up to Dragon Day, good-natured interdepartmental pranks have long been de rigueur—as have some less benign ones, including (as legend has it) the release of a green-painted pig in the Ivy Room in the mid-1960s, prompting a massive food fight. (Note: Cornellians does not endorse this! Don’t release pigs or throw food! And while we’re at it: keep that TP on the roll where it belongs, not dangling from trees on the Arts Quad!) Other traditions include a costumed “nerd walk” and the so-called “green streak”—which, in days of yore, may have involved actual streaking, but in recent decades has meant the more modest use of body paint. The beast gives side-eye in 2005. However the details have evolved from one generation to another, the occasion remains fabulously festive. The architects’ eye-popping talents are on vivid display: students dress up in elaborate homemade costumes, and the parade draws throngs of admirers—including many faculty and staff (and, often, their very excited kids), lining the route and gleefully following behind the beast. The dragon itself—a massive creation stretching as much as 100 feet long and operated by a veritable army of architects—is a labor of Big Red love, representing untold hours of effort and enormous creativity. Sometimes its design is fairly abstract, other times more representational—but it’s always a huge hit with the crowd. “Our college is such a small section of Cornell, but this is such a major event,” notes Jenn Michael, AA&P’s senior director of student services. “I think alumni really appreciate that students are carrying on something that’s been around for a long time and are still super dedicated to it.” Stories You May Like Boo! Celebrating a Spooktacular Time of Year on the Hill Raise a Glass to the Namesake of Zinck’s Night Alumni really appreciate that students are carrying on something that’s been around for a long time and are still super dedicated to it. Jenn Michael, AA&P’s senior director of student services Dragon Day traces its roots to none other than the namesake of Cornell’s student union: AA&P alum Willard Straight 1901, who founded it during his senior spring as a venue for celebrating architecture on the Hill. Originally observed on St. Patrick’s Day, it involved decking out Lincoln Hall (then the college’s home) with shamrocks, orange-and-green banners, and—later—serpents, representing the beasts that St. Patrick drove out of Ireland. An early 1900s entry seems part centipede.In the dragon’s mouth in 2006.Aflame on the Arts Quad in 2005.President Frank H.T. Rhodes at the 1993 parade.In 2007, a bamboo-like beast.An abstract design in 2014.The 2006 dragon came complete with a model of Rand Hall.A burning beast in 2005.An abstract creation for 2017.On parade in 1981.A pointy-beaked beast in 2002.Chanting the traditional refrain in 2015.A toothy grin in 2016.A minimalist creation in 2022.A two-toned creation in 2010.A Jazz Age dragon in 1927.In 1979, an angry-looking incarnation.President Skorton gets up close in 2010.A horse and buggy power the beast in the early 1900s.Shiny scales in 2019.The guest of honor in 1995.Extinguishing the blaze.Channelling the dragon’s spirit in 2018.Propelling the beast in 2009.The 2012 beast sported “dragon breath.” In the 1950s, serpents evolved into dragons, and the event became the joyful jamboree beloved by modern-day alums. Since 2013, Dragon Day has been celebrated the Friday before Spring Break—this year, it’s March 31—due to a change in the academic calendar that shifted the break to the last week of March. Dragon Day traces its roots to none other than the namesake of Cornell’s student union: AA&P alum Willard Straight 1901. (For decades prior, the event had taken place on St. Patrick’s Day or the day before Spring Break, whichever came first.) Sadly, Dragon Day had to be skipped for two years due to COVID—but it came roaring back in 2022, with a stripped-down, two-headed beast constructed of recycled materials, including repurposed paper and wooden pallets. Who Needs Halloween? “It’s so great for students to be able to say that they’re doing the same thing that people did 100 years ago,” Michael observes. “They’re so talented and creative, and they really take it seriously. They know they’re carrying on this tradition that’s been around for a very long time.” Top: The 2010 dragon passes by McGraw Tower. Archival images in this story courtesy of the College of Architecture, Art & Planning; recent dragons and campus scenes photographed by Cornell University photographers. Published March 14, 2023 What’s your favorite Dragon Day memory? Comments Chris Georgaroudakis, Class of 1986 14 Mar, 2023 From past experiences, it was great to see students driving out ‘spirts’ and showing the power of the AAP’s tradition and wag and wager themselves all over campus. Hope same this time! Reply Elizabeth A Cowles, Class of 1982 16 Mar, 2023 Dragon Day is awesome! We had great views from the 2nd floor of Stimson Hall biochemistry lab. The Statler Hall staff was perplexed one year when the sheets disappeared; the sheets reappeared as green dragon parts. The engineering students attempted to attack using huge pencils and calculators. Reply Frank Foehrkolb, Class of 1976 16 Mar, 2023 Was Dragon Day cancelled in the mid-70’S? I was Engr. Class of ’76 and was involved in a lot at Cornell. I had never heard of Dragon Day till years later. Reply Jane Brown, Class of 1984 21 Mar, 2023 Dragon Day was alive and well in the early ’70s. I was a grad student in the Landscape Architecture program and remember it well. We were only spectators as it was completely the work of the architects. I recall one year the dragon dropped a lot of brown blobs as it passed the Engineering quad. No love lost between architects and engineers. Reply Alden (Tad) Mann, Class of 1965 23 Mar, 2023 I was in the 1965 Class of Architecture and our green Dragon walked around the quat painting anyone not weaning green. Many of us were arested by campus police, but we all loved it completely. We later got together with prior classes to host pranks on Harvard, Yale, Penn and Columbia and painting their students green, we also loaded Yale’s new architecture school with a thousand crickets in an overnight foray…..I loved my time at Cornell and am living here again, now at 79 years old and I love the association. Tad Mann, Class of ’65, graduated ’66 and worked as an architect in New York and Rome, designed the New York City Police Headquarters and won a Progressive Architecture Magazine design Citation for Housing in Queens…… I love it all…. Reply John Jordan, Class of 1965 2 Apr, 2023 I remember it well and enjoy reading about the current creations. Good to hear from you. Reply Will Devine 28 Mar, 2023 There have been many great (and a few lackluster) dragons over the years, but in my mind, they all pale in comparison to the Phoenix that ‘flew’ by being suspended from the crane being used to build Duffield Hall at the time. That was a great use of available resources on the part of the Engineers. Reply Brian Beeners 28 Mar, 2023 That idea was my suggestion. I was the advisor to both the Arch. students and the Phoenix society that year. It was an opportunity not to be missed. Glad you enjoyed it! Reply Randall Nixon, Class of 1977 28 Mar, 2023 As a member of the track team, I couldn’t count on attending Dragon Day because we were always traveling the day before spring break to attend track meets in other parts of the country. However, during my junior year (1977), I was injured, and I stayed on campus to get rehab. The day before Dragon Day, I was in Carl Sagan’s class in Old Rusty. Sagan was lecturing about the possibility of exotic life on other planets when — as if on que — the dragon rushed down the stairs to the lecturn, danced around Sagan several times, and disappeared up the opposite flight of stairs. Sagan, without missing a beat, continued in his unique voice, “as I was saying, there could be exotic and unique creatures in other parts of the universe!” It was an utterly precious moment, one that as a Cornellian I will never forget. Reply Jill Baer, Class of 1976 28 Mar, 2023 The Carl Sagan story! I audited that class. Thanks so much for bringing that memory back to me! Reply Randall Nixon, Class of 1979 29 Mar, 2023 Thanks! I remember telling my mother that Carl Sagan was my astronomy professor. She replied, “do you mean the funny talking man who’s on the Johnny Carson Show?” Reply Justin Fisher, Class of 1971 28 Mar, 2023 Carl Sagan was a professor to remember! I had a seminar class with him that is a highlight of my Cornell years. Reply Kimberly Dowdell, Class of 2006 28 Mar, 2023 This was one of the highlights of my Cornell experience. Dragon Day 2002 was the best! Reply Mark Dunn, Class of 1985 31 Mar, 2023 It was like an Architecture class’ Pride Parade in which the entire class participated. Our year we divided into teams so as not to have “too many cooks in the kitchen”. I was on a team of 4 or 5 who self-appointed ourselves the dragon promoters. We painted sheets into banners and hung them all over campus during the week leading up to the parade. We hung “It’s Green and it’s Coming” flag/banners atop Rand Hall, a 20’ street light at the gorge bridge, and our coup was to sneak onto the roof of the engineering building and proudly erect a pole with our banner. We also created papier-mâché brown dragon dung balls that were deposited on the engineering quad as the tail of the dragon passed by. It was a hugely festive event. Reply Jessica Woo, Class of 1993 2 Apr, 2023 I forget exactly why, but in 1990 the dragon started as an egg. It was my freshman year, so I was new to the tradition, but there was a lot of buildup to Dragon Day that year (was there an egg on the Arts Quad? I forget now!). The next year, the dragon started out floating in Beebe Lake! Reply Leave a Comment Cancel replyOnce your comment is approved, your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *Comment * Name * Class Year Email * Save my name, email, and class year in this browser for the next time I comment. Δ Other stories You may like Cornelliana East Hill’s Most Notable Landmark Gets Some TLC Alumni David Hackney ’87 Traces His Career in Public Service Back to Lessons Learned on the Hill Alumni Podcast Celebrates Alumni—and their Love for Cornell