Dragon Day vs. ECACHL in Albany

The powers that be, have in their infinite wisdom, decided to hold Dragon Day on Friday, March 18 at 1:00 PM. This causes a direct conflict with those who had planned to attend the games at Albany. My hope is that the majority of students forgoe the parade and go to Albany, thus causing another Cornell tradition to go by the wayside and removing a mandatory duty day for the CUPD.

please correct me if i am mistaken, i haven't been around nearly long enough to know if my experience holds ... but i always thought Dragon Day was held the last day before spring break. in this case Friday, March 18th @ 1pm. i don't think there is/was any intended malice on the part of the administration,
just a conflict in schedules.

I've been through 17 of them and they have always been held on the Thursday before spring break starts, as most kids have tended to start their break on Friday.

I definitely don't remember ever being on my way out of town on Dragon Day (when they had one, which they didn't a couple times during my tenure). Seems like a pretty dumb day to have it, unless they're intentionally trying to control/kill the activity by doing it when people are leaving.

oppps, i knew i was always there ... thinking thrusday but processed friday. my b

Trying to kill Dragon Day? Never!

IIRC, Dragon Day used to be on a Friday, until the administration tried to cancel it in 1990, which provoked the architects into having a Dragon Week, which might very well have culminated on a Thursday. Uncle Mikey and I helped incubate the egg, so perhaps Beeeej has memories of how it all went down.

I managed to find a contemporary account:

[Q]

From:   CUSPIF::GAMMARAY     12-MAR-1990 22:31
To:     INET%"vy1822%bingvaxa.bitnet@cornellc",GAMMARAY    
Subj:   Draco appropinqvat

        Dateline Cornell -- Dragon Day has now become Dragon WEEK!

        Friday 3/9 was the originally scheduled date for D-day, and the
Architects had been running personals all week, so it was a good bet something
was up.  That in mind, I planned to skip my 11:15 and have lunch early so as to
be around if anything happened at noon.  Unfortunately, I got hold of a false
rumor from "Evil" Eric Lochstet that nothing was happening that day.  So, after
lunch, I went to my room to get my camera and returned to Risley to await the
noon crowd, which I knew would include Rachel, Lee, and Jed Roach, founder and
former president of the gaming club.  At about 12:40, the entire freshman
Architecture class streamed in, dressed in black, and wearing green armbands.
It was about then that I realized Evil Eric was wrong.  Amy (a freshman
Architect whom Rachel and I met when we volunteered our assistance in building
the Dragon, which we were assured was not needed) ran up to our table and said
"And you were worried!" in a what-did-you-think tone of voice.  Unfortunately,
we had missed the funeral for the Green Dragon, which was represented by an
inflatable Godzilla doll in a coffin which read "1901-1990".  The precession
congregated in front of Rand, then worked its way, wailing and giggling, to the
Straight, through same, and past Day Hall (amid angry accusations launched at
the administrators) and finally through Goldwin Smith, disrupting classes as
they went.  The body was returned to Rand and put on display, where I viewed it
later in the afternoon while buying Autumn a T-Shirt.
        While we missed the funeral, we did, however, witness the food fight,
which was nipped in the bud by Architects working at Risley who complained that
they'd have to clean it all up.  Amy assured us there was more to come.
        This morning (Monday), as I sauntered onto the Arts quad at 9:30 en
route to my 9:05 math lecture, the only class I'd attend all day (my 10:10 was
cancelled, and my 11:15 was blown off in a big way), I could not help but notice
a 15 foot tall green egg sitting in front of Sibley hall, one of the
Architecture buildings.  I said to myself, "This is gonna be fun!"
        After class and breakfast, I returned to a very warm (~55 degrees) Arts
Quad to find a group of people sitting in the hay (or is it straw? I can never
tell them apart) around the egg.  I sat down at about 11am on the steps of
Sibley and read Rob Nevelle's (sp?) article in the Sun ("...rumor has it the
Architects may be planning something else for some time next week...".  When
some Architects began setting up a sound system in front of me, I realized I
was on the wrong side of the spectacle.  I hopped down from Sibley and looked
for a convenient tree to lean against.  Before I could find one, Amy the
Architect spotted me and invited me to help incubate the egg.  (I hadn't
realized that the nest was open to anyone, and not just Architects.)  Who should
wander by a few minutes later but Mike Shappe!  He came and sat next to me, and
we passed the time in speculation, listening to a flautist practicing in Lincoln
Hall.  Amy complained that it got annoying, but I think people practicing in
Lincoln gives a "magical, mystical feeling" to the Arts Quad.  (Besides, isn't
the insane Cthuloid god Azathoth supposed to be surrounded by the music of
"idiot flute players"?)  Before long, Rob the Reporter, whom Mike actually knows
came along and yelled at Amy for keeping him occupied with the Dragon Day story
("Are you people trying to keep me from ever getting any work done?!?"  At
noon, the sound system was turned on, causing a sensory overload -- clock tower
bells, music from the amp and the idiot flute player -- and making Mike and me
realize that it might be time to leave the nest.
        After a bizzare Beastie Boys song about eggs, the loudspeaker played 
"Also sprach Zarathustra" (dum..dum..dummmmm DA-DUM) and the Architects, who had
dissapeared, burst once again out of the crowd to surround the egg and bow to it
to the tune of the "Halleluiah Chorus".  Then the hydrant was opened for
Architect Mud Wrestling, a traditional Dragon Day attraction.  One by one, all
of the Architects went into the mud, willingly or not.  And then their TA's, and
then a few professors, including one Math prof (White, the Math building, is
right next to Sibley), but unfortunately not Director of Undergraduate studies
in Mathematics Michael Morley, whom more than a few of us would like to have
seen in the mud.  At this point, Mike and I began to wonder if anyone was safe.
Apparently no one who knew the Architects was, as Rob later appeared, well
muddied.  At about that point, all of the Architects turned and charged the
crowd, flinging hay-filled mudballs at us.  That dispersed all but the heartiest
of us.  I managed to avoid getting thrown in by Amy or Rachel's friend Debbie, a
third year student, but just in case, I had put all of my valuables, including
my Dragon Day T-shirt, in my knapsack, and was walking around topless.  Lee's
friends Britain and Melanie, who work at Risley Dining, got muddied in a big
way, and threatened to throw Lee in too, but he begged off, having a class to
get to.  Eventually, the sun, which had come out at noon, retreated behind the
clouds, and I got cold and went to Risley, vowing to return tomorrow "same
dragon-time, same dragon-channel.
        So tonight, the full moon rises over the gargantuan egg (which looks
like something out of "Alien" at night), and the campus wonders, what will
happen next?  Rumor has it the actual Dragon will appear Wednesday or Thursday.
We can only wait and see, for the Architects are not talking.
                                                JTW

[/Q]

Having spent five years at Cornell as one of the few architecture students that actually knew we had a hockey team (and left studio early on Fridays to go to games), I do recall leaving Dragon Day parties early the night of Dragon Day since I had to drive to Placid the next morning. (It's easy to stop partying in the early evening when the party started at 8 AM) This makes me think that Dragon Day was not ever on the same day as an ECACHL playoff game...

For some reason, I remember it being on a Thursday but I may be totally wrong.

On another note, I remember having a water balloon fight with the engineers one night before dragon day. An engineering student yelled out "Let's go engineers!" An architecture student responded "AAAAAAAARCHITECTS!" I guess his way of chanting the word "architects" was just right because all of the engineers then yelled out "suck!" I then yelled out "Let's Go Red!" but the water balloons had already started to fly.

watching a bunch of people running around in shorts or cornell hockey or go on spring break....... doesn't seem like a tough choice to be at all.

Dragon day is mostly for architects...engineers don't even care

Dragon Days come and go, but (hopefully) Cornell appearing in Albany for the ECACHL Final Four...well, hopefully those come and go as well, but I'd rather be there anyway.

Engineers vs. Architects ... Doesn't get much better than that.

My senior year ('03) I left for spring break on Monday morning (after the home playoff series at Lynah) and returned on Thursday so I could go to the playoff games in Albany. To be fair, I had to do it for The Sun, but I would have done it anyway. I didn't get as much time in Daytona Beach, but drinking from the Whitelaw Trophy more than made up for it. To anyone debating which to attend, I highly recommend going to Albany. I wish I could make it this year.

Eh, shouldn't be a hard choice. Dragon Day has been blah for people outside of the architecture school ever since the great snowball fight of 2001.

There must have been a time when Cornell was in the PIG and Dragon Day also occured on that same Thursday.

I know that was the case in 2000. Had to leave Ithaca during Dragon Day on a Thursday on my way up to see Cornell beat Clarkson in the PIG.

~Josh

It was on Thursday before spring break the years I was there. I remember missing most of them because for the pep band, we left Thursday morning for the play - in game at Placid one year or maybe two years, and usually Thursday afternoon for the other years.

Yeah, then it was definitely twice. I seem to remember my freshman year, '98, when we lost the play in game, I believe to Princeton, but I could be wrong. That was also the year I missed Dragon Day. Or it could have been sophomore year. Oh well, whatever.