Pagan student takes offence at drunken ball on ‘holy’ solstice
Cambridge college accused of using ancient religious festival ‘as an excuse for students to get drunk’
IT WAS supposed to be a fitting way to end the semester and celebrate the coming summer holidays.
But now organisers of the “Solstice” festival at Trinity Hall, Cambridge find themselves accused of “bastardising” the beliefs of a sect of modern day druids, who claim the soirée amounts to sacrilege.
According to student Georgia Humphrey, a practising Wiccan, the decision to host this year’s May Ball on the eve of the solstice is “offensive” and “gross” because it coincides with a pagan festival.
Ms Humphrey, 22, an LGBT women’s officer at Christ’s College, has also taken exception to the organisers using images of Stonehenge in promotional material, because it is a place of religious significance.
She wrote online said: “I’m Wiccan, which is a branch of paganism. We, along with most other branches of paganism (druids, satanists, hedge witches etc) celebrate the solstices every year and are usually the ones hanging out at [sic] stone henge every year in crazy robes and stuff. I think it’s pretty grim to use any religion’s festivals as an excuse for a bunch of students to get drunk.”
The organisers of the ball said: “We recognise the importance of the summer and winter solstice to the Wiccan community. Our theme is intended to highlight and celebrate the beauty of an astronomical marvel.
“Our predecessors across the world were awed by the beauty of the solstice and, like so many before and since, we share in their wonder and celebration.
“It has never been our intention to appropriate any Wiccan practice. We wish only to acknowledge and celebrate the beauty of the natural world.”
Commonly known as midsummer, the summer solstice has been cele- brated by pagans for thousands of years, with modern day worshippers gathering annually at Stonehenge to watch the sun rise.
It also coincides with the Christian feast day of St John the Baptist, which takes place on June 24.
Wicca, is a modern day religious movement drawing on ancient druidry and ritual practices, commonly referred to as pagan witchcraft.
It emerged during the early 1900s and began to develop a cult following in England through the teachings of Gerald Gardner, an amateur anthropologist and author.
Ms Humphrey was unavailable for comment when approached by The Daily Telegraph. However, in an interview with Varsity, the student newspaper, she said she objected to the organisers using her beliefs “for the entertainment of others”.
“I was generally annoyed at the theme. If I got upset about every instance of someone misrepresenting pagan religions or mocking me for my beliefs I’d never get anything done.
“It does irritate me though that I am subject to this kind of grief over my beliefs pretty much whenever someone discovers this aspect of my life, and then I discover something like this – an event that is using a holiday I celebrate seriously and with religious conviction as merely the theme for a party.”
The annual party, which is one of the most popular fixtures in the Cambridge social calendar, has previously taken on similarly outlandish themes, including the Brothers Grimm, Mardi Gras and Marmalade Skies.
Trinity Hall is one of just nine colleges to hold an annual May Ball.