Records indicate that, indeed, the field-day-inspired holiday (“tradition” is too weak a word, believe me) originated at WCU. Nutrition major Rodolfo “Rudy” Téllez, frustrated at the lack of spirit events on campus, had been hunting for something. Something worthwhile and exciting, something wild, something to rouse the student body from their spiritless slumber. In an interview with WCU’s student newspaper, The Quad, he posed the question: “What was big about being a Golden Ram?”
A post-party movie night in 1996 nudged the idea into Téllez’s head. “Time is running out,” he recalled to The Quad, “It’s already January. I’m watching the movie Pulp Fiction (1994). It’s the scene where John Travolta and Samuel L. Jackson are getting washed up in someone’s yard, and John Travolta has a t-shirt that says ‘USC Banana Slugs.’ That was it. I said, ‘I’ve got it. It’s gonna be Banana Day.’”
The event has since gone global, making appearances in Fortnite and in schools around the world.
What do you do on Banana Day?
It’s one thing to hype it up, but it’s a whole other to prove what outsiders are missing.
Ultimately, Banana Day is the university student’s field day. On the third Wednesday of April, WCU’s campus center—the Quad, after which its newspaper is named—greets relieved classroom escapees in goldenrod. The grassy ground is overlaid with pavilions offering free bananas by the bunch, free banana cakes and pies nabbed up quick as… well, hotcakes.
A few steps down, get lost in the welcoming twister of fellow students lined up like soldiers for the banana toss, the grand banana race, and too many more perfectly on-theme competitions to count. Peppered throughout the scene, and extending far beyond the main Quad lawn, are food trucks, buffets, shopping booths, and featured artwork you’ll be proud to post, as well as quirky attractions like the giant banana car and a banana-costumed therapy dog students title “banana pup.”
An all-around good time, the event brings students straight back to their comparably simpler high-school days. One senior, clutching a just-won t-shirt already drenched in sweat, proclaimed it “fucking epic, man.”
For those unswayed by free food and friendly competition, the collectible t-shirts are the hook that reels them right in. WCU issues a small batch of celebratory tees every Banana Day, obtainable only by winning one of its many competitions. Even then, you’d best get there early, because once the shirts run out you’ll be scrambling for the next-best thing among a crowd of similarly banana-hungry students.
The t-shirts truly are a big deal for the awesomeness of their designs (and their supposed resale value). Unlike a typical free university tee, these shirts won’t end up in the forbidden section of your closet. They’re the kind of thing you can wear anywhere, and they’re excellent conversation starters for your adventures across campus.
But it’s bigger than that.
Banana Day’s spirit extends far beyond a mere school event. Late April is a nerve-wracking precursor to finals week, where cortisol levels rise Eiffel-high. Students are less social than ever, weighed down by that elusive determiner of their future. A pair of eyes crammed before a textbook is likely more than not to feel deep envy towards those enjoying a coffee outside the campus Starbucks, sprawled out on the grassy Quad with their beach towels and books, whooshing by on skateboards they’ve brought out of storage. With a mass campus event to look forward to, students are incentivized to do what they really want: play outside.
Laptops and notebooks, stuffy dorm rooms with air conditioning that probably doesn’t exist, stress and expectations, next year’s housing and schedule, and schoolwork that seems to pile higher by the hour are an ugly mixture that frequently keeps students indoors. Everyone is exhausted, and it’s easier to stay in with such low energy levels. Having an out, especially one managed by the university itself, takes away the guilt and responsibility that come with, say, partying the night before an exam.
An event like Banana Day urges students to have fun on purpose. The environment is set up to take full advantage of the campus’ open space, allowing students to go bananas as long as they please before they run back to their temporary homes, no cleanup or budgeting required.
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