A fight nobody can explain

At 11am on Monday, hundreds of students in fancy dress streamed on to St Salvator's lower college lawn clutching cans of shaving foam, and the spraying began. The St Andrews foam fight is the form Raisin Monday now takes at the University of St Andrews: a rite of passage in which freshers thank the older students who mentored them through their first weeks - a ritual that has run for 600 years.

The name points to quieter origins: freshers traditionally handed their elders a pound of raisins, hence Raisin Monday. How that exchange of dried fruit turned into foam is a mystery. Nobody at the university seems to remember when or why the change happened.

Mums, dads and fancy dress

The ritual sits inside the university's academic family tradition. Second- and third-year students, known as "mums" and "dads", are matched with the first years and take charge of the fun - including picking what each group wears.

Recent themes have included:

• •Smurfs
• •mice
• •bananas
• •grandmas
• •sunflowers
• •chefs

Freya's family went one further: her chemistry student parents dressed the group as periodic table elements.

Why students say it matters

For the students taking part, the event is less about the foam than the people. St Andrews is an isolated university on the east coast of Fife, the third oldest in the English-speaking world, and more than half of the small town is made up of students who come from all over the world. The tradition, students said, helps break down the barriers between them.

Freya, a first year, put it this way: "Traditions like this are much more important because people are less connected face to face than they were before."

Simon, part of the same academic family, saw the foam as the whole point. "When you are covering each other in shaving foam, how much more bonded can you get?" he said.

Henry, an American student, said the morning had widened his circle beyond his compatriots. "I only really know Americans, so getting to meet people from Singapore, England, South America, Africa and the Middle East" was what he took from the event.

North Sea dip and a changed morning

The lawn fight caps two days of activities that this year looked slightly different from before.

• •On the Sunday, first years have traditionally been woken early, "kidnapped" and made to take a dip in the North Sea. In 2026 that part is optional.
• •Before the spraying starts on Monday, students are encouraged to donate to a local food bank.
• •The 2026 foam fight appeared far less alcohol-fuelled than in previous years.

After about half an hour, the excited students running around the green began to slow as the cans ran empty. They then headed off to be hosed down despite single digit temperatures, and away from the green the foam-covered first years greeted their parents with bear hugs - covering them in foam as well - before going home to shower.