Chants of “Dragon dragon dragon! Oi oi oi!” filled the air and throngs of people flooded campus streets before spring break, as a dragon, created by first-year architecture students in Cornell’s College of Art, Architecture and Planning, traveled around campus to celebrate Dragon Day on Friday at 1 p.m.
This year’s theme, “How to Build your Dragon,” was based on the DreamWorks Animation franchise ‘How to Train Your Dragon’ and emphasized collaboration and community. Although plain while paraded through the Cornell campus, the exterior of the dragon became covered with vibrant colors at the conclusion of the parade on the Arts Quad, when architecture students threw colored powder all over the blank canvas wings.
Architecture students decorate the dragon on the Arts Quad while participating in the end of Dragon Day festivities.
The origin of Dragon Day, which goes back more than 100 years, is credited to Willard Dickerman Straight ’01, namesake of the Willard Straight Hall Student Union. Corey Earle ’07, an American studies lecturer, previously explained to The Sun that Dragon Day was created to organize a celebration aimed at bringing together architecture students outside of their demanding course load.
Appreciative of the “glorious day in Ithaca,” Ashley Kwarteng ’27 watched the parade to support the architecture students and also usher in the beginning of spring break.
“I like this year better because of how interactive it was with the powder color. Last year was also cool, but it was more stagnant,” Kwarteng said. “I think [that] the fact that we have an architecture school in the first place to put on something like Dragon Day … not a lot of other schools can have such a level of creativity within their student body.”
In celebration, a student throws yellow powder on the dragon at the end of the parade.
The parade began at Rand Hall, where the wooden dragon led the crowd down Feeney Way and onto Campus Road. The dragon then made its way through Ho Plaza and ended on the Arts Quad near Sibley Hall.
Cornell’s Brazilian percussion ensemble Deixa Sambar marched behind the architecture students, accompanying the dragon throughout the parade. At the end of the parade, the Big Red Marching Band performed outside of Goldwin Smith Hall.
The wooden dragon is wheeled across Ho Plaza.
Kwarteng’s favorite part of the parade were the costumes and presentation of the phoenix on the engineering quad, where she watched the “face off” between the phoenix and dragon.
The phoenix was created by the Phoenix Society at Cornell, designed by students in the College of Engineering to battle the dragon.
Jose Vizueth ’25 enjoyed the chance to walk around campus and see the dragon upstage the phoenix.
“I always come [to the parade] every year. It's always fun to see the dragons and how they design it,” Vizueth said. “It’s a big event just before spring break … and it allows the architecture students to show off their skills … So it’s pretty cool.”
As a senior, Audrey Liu ’25 wanted to take advantage of her “last opportunity to partake in” Dragon Day.
“It's one of those traditions that happens every year where you kind of showcase what the architecture department is doing, and every year there's a different dragon, so there's a lot of anticipation around that,” Liu said. “I feel like it's one of those things to look forward to at Cornell.”
Isabella Hanson is a sophomore in the College of Arts and Sciences. She is a News Editor for the 143rd editorial board, and a former senior writer. She can be reached at ihanson@cornellsun.com.
