St. Patrick’s Day is arguably one of the only days Cornell truly feels like a state college. Just like a state college, students partake in head-to-toe green outfits, weekend darties, pre-games starting at 8 a.m. and borgs. But, one of the most notable traditions of St. Patrick’s Day (or weekend, more specifically) also happens that all Cornellians look forward to is the annual Run of the Gingers: a celebration of redheads that populate campus. If you ask us, it’s not St. Patrick’s Day without the Ginger Run.
The Ginger Run (or Run of the Gingers) is a popular, informal event where red-headed students race through the crowded darties, fueled by cheers from the crowd and thousands of phone cameras competing to capture a glimpse of the run on video. Created to honor ginger ancestry, the Ginger Run is a quintessential part of Cornell’s St. Patrick’s Day weekend festivities.
Social media has greatly popularized the Ginger Run and now almost every single college in the U.S. that celebrates St. Patrick’s Day participates in some form. Ginger Run videos rack up thousands of views on TikTok and Instagram reels which only led to the increased mobilization of the Cornell ginger community. This year, the Ginger Run was announced by an anonymous Sidechat post with an AI-generated cliché graphic, further hyping up this event a whole week before Saturday’s darties.
At 2 p.m. sharp, gingers somehow managed to congregate at the starting line on Linden Ave. among hundreds of overlookers, and instantly, the crowd parted to make way for the race. Everyone clamored to get near the racetrack and people clamored onto the shoulders of their taller friends in hopes of catching a glimpse. Many gingers reportedly did not make it to the Ginger Run as multiple different start times began to circulate.
As cheers erupted, a bobbing sea of red hair could be seen flying out of the starting line. iPhone cameras flew out in hopes of getting a TikTokworthy video. The gingers did the best they could running across Linden despite obstructions in their path. In the middle of the race track, two cars were trying to get through the swarm of students, creating a large barrier for the gingers and slowing their run down. Despite the obstruction, the red-heads ran back and forth on Linden, screams from the crowds continuing for about 2 minutes. Just as quickly as it started, the Ginger Run ended and friends crowded the winded gingers at the finish line to congratulate them on this red-headed right of passage.
Because of the enormous hype built up before the event, many students felt let down and disappointed by the event. Lila Chami ’28 was excited to witness this tradition for the first time as a freshman and an international student and thought it was fun, but she “expected more gingers to participate in the run” and for it to last longer. As first-time Ginger Run viewers ourselves, we largely agree with Chami’s sentiment. From our perspective, we could only see a few ginger heads bobbing from the massive crowds, and as soon as it started, it was over.
Our perspective was shared by Shawn Grider ’28. “I only saw about five people run from my perspective and they were all slow because of the crowds.” Many students, who were excited from seeing all the TikTok videos and Sidechat posts about the Ginger Run, were left feeling upset from the lack of ginger representation. While having red hair is a phenomenon only occurring for 1-2% of the world’s population according to the World Population Review, it seems like Cornell’s student body is a classic case of the Irish famine — an absence of redheads.
Nonetheless, the annual Ginger Run is a St. Patrick’s Day weekend highlight that all Cornellians should experience at least once as it highlights our beloved ginger-headed peers. We hope more gingers can be mobilized next year to make the Ginger Run even more memorable.
