Snap of the Day: Black Lantern Processional of Alpha Sigma Phi
Amidst the several Cornellians enjoying a fine Saturday afternoon and evening out on the Arts Quad were a number of solemn black-cloaked individuals standing at the edges of the quad. Every few minutes, they stepped toward the center, while the ones standing at the six o’clock and twelve o’clock positions raised their lanterns. Another individual, possibly some kind of group leader, contrasted the still and silent dark circle by hobbling around in a bright blue hooded cloak with a crude walking stick, coughing every so often. Another small circle of young men in suits stood in the exact center of the arts quad, looking downwards.
This strange sight was the Black Lantern Processional, a hundred-year-old tradition of the Alpha Sigma Phi fraternity.
Cornell University’s chapter of Alpha Sigma Phi has been performing the Black Lantern Processional every year as a commemoration of deceased brothers and as an initiation ritual for new pledges. This year and almost every year in the past, the event has fallen on Cornell Days, a weekend when Cornell hosts and recruits prospective students. Supposedly, one year a pre-frosh was so disturbed by the ritual that he decided not to come to Cornell the following year.
The Processional is certainly a strange and very public sight, and the brothers of Alpha Sigma Phi seem to take that very seriously. Older fraternity members were handing out quarter-cards explaining the event, which included a statement denying their association with supremacist or racist groups (many might agree that some of the cloaks are vaguely reminiscent of Ku Klux Klan garb).
The brothers handing out quarter-cards could not divulge too much information about the symbolism of the event, and the cloaked brothers would not even speak at all. Yet, the president of the fraternity was able to explain that at exactly 7:09 pm, the circle of black-cloaked brothers would converge in the center, and the blue-cloaked brother would lead them in a procession back to their fraternity house. Why 7:09? In military time, that is 19:09, the year that the fraternity was founded at Cornell.
And that is exactly what occurred.
Tags: fraternities, traditions
