Mountain Day!

Jascin N. Leonardo Finger • Oct 18, 2021

Everyone should have a Mountain Day! Mine was September 30th this year.


What is Mountain Day you ask? Well, it is a LONG tradition at my alma mater – Mount Holyoke College (MHC) – and something we all looked forward to – and still do. We anticipate it – wondering if the beautiful, crisp fall day being forecasted will be the day.  Mt. Holyokers awake – or maybe do not – to the pealing on the College bells at 7AM alerting the campus to the fact that it is Mountain Day. This signifies a day free of classes and a chance to climb to the summit Mount Holyoke in a longstanding tradition at MHC. Bag lunches are provided and everyone in the Pioneer Valley knows its Mountain Day at MHC as students take over the PVTA – the bus service that serves the five colleges.


When I say longstanding – I mean VERY long. This is the college’s oldest tradition, dating back to our founder Mary Lyon and 1838. Besides women’s education she was also about making sure that women got outside and exercised so imagine what this looked like in 1838.


Even though I graduated many eons ago, we all continue to try and take part in Mountain Day no matter where we are. Mine was a lunch time drive out to Cisco where I birded briefly – binoculars on beach, water, and the pines. It also brought me emails and texts from fellow   alum – including my friend and sophomore roommate who is living in Rome. (We will allow for the fact that she transferred elsewhere our senior year – pulled by the college she attended on junior year exchange. But see the influence of Mountain Day?)


Many colleges have traditions but the women’s colleges, especially the Seven Sisters, have ones that have been around for so long and very much maintained in their original spirit or form. Take Founders Day at MHC (and Porter Deacon’s Hat – story for another day) and M&Cs. 


JNLF

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