MICHELE DEMPSTER
Love is in the air with Zoep week just around the corner and the residences are getting ready to impress their newly assigned partners.
There is an order to the way love should progress. The initial meeting leaves you feeling light-headed and tingly: a sign of having found your true love. This leads to dating. Dating leads to balloons, flowers and sickeningly sweet gestures of romance. An engagement will follow and guests are invited to the ceremony.
It is tradition for Rag partners at Tuks to follow a similar progress of love. Every year, each residence is assigned a new Rag partner of the opposite sex. Well, almost all – Klaradyn and Magrietjie will be romancing each other this year.
Each Rag partner must first “flirt” with their newly allocated residence. The flirting usually lasts a week and is known as Zoep week.
A wedding ceremony will follow this flirting process. It takes place in the first week of Rag at the beginning of the year. It is compulsory for the first years of both residences to attend. The dress code: as trashy and trailer park as possible. The residences parade to the square in their not-so-delightful outfits and say their vows in public. During the course of the marriage, the partners attempt to raise money for charity and host events together in order to create awareness.
An affair begins with the new Rag partner at the end of the year when Zoep week starts all over again. Residences “divorce each other” so to speak and begin bonding with their new lovers. This is all in the name of fun and games and to create lasting friendships between residences.
This year Kiaat kicked off their Zoep week by visiting Erika with a flower for each girl and some punch to break the ice. The girls replied by sticking love notes on Kiaat’s doors, as well as making everything in their residence purple (even the toilet water). Mauritz Lubcker, newly appointed Rag HK of Kiaat, stated that he was “excited to Rag with another big ladies residence”.
Some residences still intend to charm their new rag partner. Marko Vermaak, Rag HK of Olienhout, told Perdeby that Zoep week with Asterhof begins on 19 October after their first big event together, Pot en Pons. Jasmyn kicked off the week by bringing Mopanie beer and muffins to win them over.
Not all the residences partake in Zoep week. Nerina and Zeus will rag together next year but chose not to partake.
It looks like everyone is getting excited about Rag. We just hope there won’t be any premature divorces. Here’s to a short-lived but happy marriage.
