Twenty-five years of celebrating St Urho at Turku University

Students of the departments (until 2009, institute) of cultural research have since 1988 presented a play relating the deeds of St Urho. In addition to the play, part of the day’s celebrations has usually involved the election of the year’s Urho, and an evening party. Each year, students have presented their own interpretation of the play. As the 2000s progressed, the performance of the play took hold as part of the initiation rituals of first-year folkloristics and ethnology students. The play is little known in other faculties, but is a central part of the student traditions among students of cultural research, by means of which they become socialised into their own academic fields. The article also presents research concerning academic and student traditions.