“To Yule or not to Yule?” has become the question this season. As this is my senior year of college, I naturally want to take part in as many festivities and traditions as I possibly can before I graduate and go on my way in life.
This includes Yule — or at least until I started asking who was going.
I am a single, college wom- an and many of my friends are single, so I assumed we would all go together. In high school, this was the case for prom; you no longer need to have a date to go. Many people opt to go to these occasions in large groups with their friends.
However, I was stunned when I kept hearing my friends say that you need to have a date to go to Yule.
This shocked me. I know this was most likely the case in perhaps the ‘60s or ‘70s, but we are living in the year 2012.
Why must we need dates to take us to Yule? It saddens me to think that, for tradition’s sake, a bright, college-aged woman of God would have to miss out on such a regal part of campus tradition because she does not have a date.
I began to think that this was just the female perspective, so I asked a few male friends but still heard the same remarks from them as well. They asked if I had a date and mentioned that no one goes to Yule without one.
As I received more of the same responses — or questions, in this case — from fellow students, it made me all the more motivated to go without a date but with my friends instead.
I will date myself, and I will have just as much fun as I would if I had a date to Yule. I suppose this perception is just part of Christian college culture and having traditional values.
The problem is that I, too, have traditional values and subscribe to much of Christian college culture, but I am not willing to wait or depend on a date to experience a traditional college festivity that will be part of my cherished memories for years to come.
As I plan on going to Yule with friends, I hope to not be escorted out or denied entrance because of my singleton status, in which case the perception of not being able to go without a date to Yule will die or at least give others the courage not to fall victim to the student culture that exists because of unnecessary tradition.
I shall Yule.
