St Andrews students cover each other in foam for annual Raisin Monday tradition

St Andrews students celebrate Raisin Monday with a huge shaving foam fight, costumes and food donations at the historic Fife university tradition.

(Image: Jane Barlow/the Press Association)

Students in St Andrews have thrown shaving foam at each other in an annual tradition “for the memories” on Monday at the Fife university.

Hundreds of first-year students took to St Salvator’s Quad to take part in the messy ceremony for Raisin Monday.

Students Daisy, Lilliana, Bee, and Charlotte said they took part in the foam fight “for the memories”.

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“It’s so much fun. It’s a huge tradition here. We didn’t want to miss out,” the group said.

Raisin Monday is a tradition where older students adopt first-year students as “children” and help guide them through mentoring.

The tradition is intended to help freshers meet new people and settle in.

Students take part in the traditional Raisin Monday foam fight on St Salvator's Lower College Lawn at the University of St Andrews in Fife. The messy display is the culmination of a weekend of festivities where first years say thank you to their more senior student "parents" for mentoring them. Picture date: Monday October 19, 2026. PA Photo.Photo credit should read: Jane Barlow/the Press Association (Image: Jane Barlow/the Press Association)

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The mentoring originally started in Raisin Weekend, when “children” were entertained by their “parents” and are encouraged to play pranks and silly games.

On Raisin Monday, the “children” dressed in flamboyant costumes and were traditionally given “raisin receipts” by their “parents”, usually consisting of strange objects with a traditional Latin inscription.

However, over time, this tradition has evolved and students are encouraged to donate items for the local food bank instead, before being let loose on Lower College lawn for an enormous, shaving foam fight.

The unusual tradition is believed to date back to the university’s founding in 1413.

On Monday, third-year students lined the foaming arena to cheer on their “children”, often dressed up the same to signify their “family” ties.

Students donned costumes from smurfs, to minions, and pigs, and were kept stocked up on shaving foam for the fight.

Speaking to the Press Association, Chloe, 17, and Anais, 18, explained that each “family” is supposed to choose a theme and dress the “children” up so each group can recognise each other.

“Our family chose to do face paints,” Anais said.

“We woke up at three, and then we just all got ready together at one of our academic parents’ places, and obviously there’s a foam fight now, and it’s been really, really fun. And what’s really good is that we had to give food donations as well before we came in.”

Misha Bahlaj, 18, and Dakota Flaget, 21, first year students who were dressed as smurfs for the foam fight, agreed that the tradition had been “so fun”.

Misha, who had shaving foam completely covering her ears and face, said: “I can barely see, I can barely hear, but I’m enjoying myself.”

First year student Adam Gibb said he did not know what to expect coming into the day, but he said he was having a great time.

“I didn’t really know (what to expect) to be honest, but this is really fun. This has exceeded my expectations, whatever they were,” he said.

“It has been a very good welcome to the uni.”

Another group of students, dressed as fairies from Barbie: Fairytopia, called the foam fight tradition “amazing” and said they were having an “incredible amount of fun”.