User:Torontois/Penne (Belgium)

The penne is the traditional, folkloric hat of students at non-Catholic universities and haute-écoles in Belgium. Although the basic shape is the same across universities in Belgium, the traditions surrounding each penne can vary to a high degree. The penne is indissociable from the student initiation rites known as the baptism, and the student association (known as a circle) that administered it.

Origins
The penne takes its name from a Walloon word meaning 'visor'. It first appeared at the Free University of Brussels in 1850, and later at the University of Liège in 1860. In Liège before 1918, the penne was known as the crapuleuse. Although its origins are somewhat murky, it can be thought of as a "response" to the Calotte, the student cap worn at Catholic universities in Belgium, which had dominated the educational scene in the country until the creation of ULB in 1834. Its oversized visor is thought to be "protection from the eyes of God".

Description
The shape of the penne is similar to a baseball cap, although the brim, also known as a penne, is much longer, and the material used to make the "cap" portion, known as the alto, is much thicker. The top side of the alto has a symbol of the university on it, usually stitched on in the colour associated with a particular faculty or haute-école. Around the edge of the penne lies the facultary band, a strip of material that identifies the wearer as having been baptised within a particular student circle (see below). Brims come in varying lengths for males and females: females are permitted to wear brims of 12, 14 or 16 centimetres, while males are permitted to wear brims of 14, 16 or 18 centimetres. Around the sides of the alto, wearers can add letters, stars, and other insignia to display various bits of information about the wearer - many of these symbols are derived from freemasonry. The stars in particular signify the number of years a student has participated in the baptism.

Baptism
Once a year, students at universities across Belgium participate in elaborate initiation rites known as baptisms. Such activities typically revolve around European student traditions such as cantuses and drinking, but also involve a degree of philosophy and history. Older, baptised students, known as comitard (French) or schachtentemmer (Dutch, roughly meaning "tamer"), act as guides and organisers throughout the activities. Baptised students who play no role in the organisation of the baptism are known as poils (males) or plumes (females). Students who wish to complete their baptism are known as "blues" (bleus in French; schachten in Dutch, meaning "freshmen" or "newcomers").

Criticism
The baptism is a frequent target of critics. Many of them state that the initiation rites can be dangerous, or even humiliating, and have compared some of the activities with hazing in the United States. In response to these critics, Circles often restrict what a comitard/schachtentemmer can do or say, and significantly tone down the danger factor of activities without compromising intensity. All blues, regardless of Circle or language community, are required to pay a fee to cover the cost of insurance.

Circles
Following in a long tradition, Belgian student associations, known as cercles in French and kring in Dutch, serve as a second home for students. There is no proper English translation for cercle; it can best be described as a student club for students belonging to a particular faculty or department of a university. There are three kinds of associations:


 * Folkloric Circles are almost always built around a particular faculty or department of a university, and always carry out baptism.
 * Regional Circles are built around student communities whose students originate from a particular region of the world. The majority of these Circles are "folklore-friendly", but do not carry out a baptism of their own, with one notable exception (the CELB, Luxembourgish students at the French-speaking ULB).
 * Non-Folkloric Circles have nothing to do with student folklore, and do not carry out a baptism.

Circles always have both a battle cry and a longer, more formal song. Battle cries may be chants, but more often, they borrow a well-known tune and replace the lyrics. Formal songs are much longer, and often have 5 or 6 verses set to original music.

Across the linguistic divide, circles can almost always find a homologous circle in the opposite community. The following examples are from the Universities of Brussels, the ULB and the VUB.

NB: In the case of the Universities of Brussels, some circles found at one university may not be found at another university, and vice-versa. Occasionally, homologous circles exist, but may be classified differently (for instance, the PERS Kring at the VUB organises a baptism while the French-speaking equivalent at the ULB does not.)