Westminster School - Customs

Customs

The 'Greaze' has been held "up School" (in the School Hall) on Shrove Tuesdays since 1753: the head cook ceremoniously tosses a horsehair-reinforced pancake over a high bar, which was used in the 16th century to curtain off the Lower School. Members of the school fight for the pancake for one minute, watched over by the Dean of Westminster Abbey (as Chairman of the Governors), the Head Master, the whole School and distinguished or even occasionally Royal visitors. The pupil who gets the largest weight is awarded a gold sovereign (promptly redeemed for use next year), and the Dean begs a half-holiday for the whole School. A cook who failed to get the 'pancake' over the bar would formerly have been "booked", or stoned with Latin primers, although that tradition has long lapsed.

The privilege of being the first commoners to acclaim each new sovereign at their coronation in Westminster Abbey is reserved for the Queen's (or King's) Scholars. Their shouts of "Vivat Regina/Rex" ("Long Live the Queen/King") are incorporated into the Coronation Anthem.

Despite the formal separation from the Abbey, the school remains Anglican, with services in the Abbey attended by the entire school at least twice a week, and many other voluntary-attendance services of worship. The school was expressly exempted by the Act of Uniformity to allow it to continue saying Latin prayers despite the Reformation. Every Wednesday there is an assembly Up School known as Latin Prayers, which opens with the Headmaster leading all members of the school in chanting prayers in Latin, followed by notices in English. The School's unique pronunciation of formal Latin is known as 'Westminster Latin', and descends from medieval English scholastic pronunciation: Queen Elizabeth I, who spoke fluent Latin, commanded that Latin was not to be said "in the monkish fashion", a significant warning upon loyalties between Church and State. A service called 'Little Commem' is given in Latin each year, in which the Queen's Scholars commemorate the school's benefactors, laying pink roses on the tomb of Elizabeth I in Westminster Abbey. In alternate years a much larger service called 'Big Commem' is given in its place, where the Praefectus (the Head Boy/Captain of the Queen's Scholars) lays a wreath of pink roses on the tomb of Elizabeth I. Prospective donors are particularly invited to note the School's gratitude to benefactors. From 2010 "Big Commem" will occur in every other year.

Since the monastic Christmas revels of mediæval times, Latin plays have been presented by the Scholars, with a prologue and witty epilogue on contemporary events. Annual plays, "either tragedy or comedy", were required by the school statutes in 1560, and some early plays were acted in College Hall before Elizabeth I and her whole Council. However, in a more prudish age Queen Victoria did not accompany Prince Albert and the Prince of Wales to the play, and recorded in her diary that it was "very Improper". Today, the play is put on less frequently, any members of the school may take part, and the Master of the Queen's Scholars gives the Latin prologue. The 1938 play caused a diplomatic incident with the German ambassador withdrawing offended by the words 'Magna Germania' figuring in extenso on a map of Europe displayed.

The Queen's Scholars have privileged access to the House of Commons gallery, said to be a compromise recorded in the Standing Orders of the House in the 19th century, to stop the boys from climbing into the Palace over the roofs.