Tailcoat week
The tailcoat week is an annual event organized by the graduates of the former Technikum Winterthur, which is now run as a separate department of the Zurich University of Applied Sciences . As part of this event, all (male) graduates grow a beard for 100 days and dress exclusively in tails in the week before the diploma is handed over .
history
The origin of the tailcoat week goes back to 1925. At that time, the majority of the students came straight from secondary school and therefore graduated from school at the age of around 19. With beards and tails they demonstrated their new affiliation to the adult world.
The week of tailcoats was suspended during the Second World War . It was only reintroduced around 1950. After leaving school, graduates played tricks that sometimes went too far. With the introduction of the tailcoat week, the school management made it possible to reduce the risk of faxing to one week. Different traditions gradually emerged later, e.g. B. that graduates committed to wearing a beard in a beard contract. For a few years it was also appropriate that once this week a trip to Zurich to Niederdorf was taken in the SBB baggage car . Lessons for the younger classes were made impossible in the morning by barricades or removing chairs. The idea of driving innovative and unusual vehicles through the old town of Winterthur in the so-called tailcoat parade arose from mechanical engineering. It is still mandatory to wear tails during this week.
Tailcoat Week Today
In the meantime, the school management has committed itself to the tailcoat week - but sets a few rules of the game so that the festivities are kept within reasonable limits. As an example, the barricades must be removed at the beginning of the 3rd lesson in the morning. During the tailcoat week there will be an internal party in the former Technikum Winterthur. Beer is served almost 24 hours a day and various bands perform in the evenings.
The tailcoat week was threatened by the change in the school calendar with the Bachelor / Master system. The last regular tailcoat week in autumn took place from October 27th to November 1st, 2008.
Since 2009 the diploma thesis no longer intersects with the new semester, the diploma thesis is already completed in the regular semester. The tailcoat week has since taken place in the last week of the spring semester (end of May) and only lasts 3.5 days instead of 4.5 days as before. On the day of the night of technology, the graduates present themselves in tails for the last time. First, the graduates drive through the old town of Winterthur in their adventurous vehicles at the tailcoat parade. The bachelor theses will then be presented to the public on the ZHAW campus and the crowning glory will be the "BartAb" event, where the obligatory beard of men wearing tails is shaved by volunteer students from the health department (since 2007).
Individual evidence
- ↑ Night of Technology ( Memento of the original from September 15, 2011 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.
- ↑ http://www.landbote.ch/detail/article/frack-bier-und-laerm/gnews/99151539/
