There was a lot of singing on Halloween when IAAS Leuven organised a cantus. First there was a Q&A with old members of IAAS, our alumni. Here everyone could ask them questions about their experiences and what impact IAAS has had on their lives. After that we grabbed our codex, opened the beer and started singing.
Now, you might think "What is a Cantus??".
So let me explain it for you:
A cantus is a typical Belgian student tradition. Student organisations and fraternities organise these evenings which involves singing traditional songs and drinking beer. There are strict traditional rules which must be followed and some of the songs we sing date back to the middle ages even.
The students see the lyrics of the songs in the codex, the book which compiles all of the songs. Here you have the club anthems and hundreds of songs in many different languages (Dutch, French, English, German, Latin, African). The songs are often about drinking, history and past of Belgium and or student city.
For instance:
What shall we Do with the drunken soldier
Country roads
Oh, Susanna
Clementine
....
What about the structure? The Cantor leads the cantus. He's the person in the middle with the big hammer and the barrel. He hits this barrel to announce the next song, to get us to be quiet or to show the rhythm. He also has the power to punish people if they are not following the rules and being disrupted etcetera. These punishments are often drinking beer but in an unusual and funny ways.
Who goes to a cantus? The Praesidium (the board of the student organisation), the Corona (normal students) and the newbies (Schachten). The corona just follows along normally but the Schachten are being put on low benches and are often being made fun of. Schachten are freshman or first-year students who want to become a member of the student association. So as a way to prove their worth to the club they need to do some challenges, the corona makes fun of them, ....
What do you wear to a cantus?
You wear lab coats, for protection of course. People often sign on them and at the end of your studies you have a nice coat which smells of beer and memories.
So that's a basic introduction into cantus. If you ever come to Belgium we'll do our best to show you this tradition of ours.