Kegs, Logs, and Jigs: Oktoberfest 2023

The students and faculty of Thomas Aquinas College, New England, welcomed fall last weekend with the third annual Oktoberfest.

The Class of 2024 spent the morning setting up for the event, lugging logs and hay bales down to the athletic field and decorating tables with pumpkins and chrysanthemums. Faculty and fellow students soon trickled over to the field, where they mingled over root beer and cornhole, with some starting up impromptu games of volleyball and football. 

Then, just before dinner, the log-splitting contest began. Students tested their strength in a competition for who could quarter a log the quickest. The audience cheered for each competitor, going wild for the winner of each round. With the last log reduced to fragments, everyone gathered at the tables for a feast of bratwurst, sauerkraut, and potato salad.

In a syncretic spirit, a small group of students treated the dinner crowd to a performance of traditional Irish music, which caught the attention of the faculty children, who clapped and danced along to the rousing jigs. In a more Teutonic spirit was the keg-rolling relay race that followed. Students competed with the faculty to roll large, awkward barrels around a stack of hay bales and back. Rife with competition, sabotage, and bouts of wrestling, the relay was a big hit. 

As the temperature dropped, the seniors revealed trays of warm desserts. Flocking to the bonfire, students chatted and sang Irish songs to bring this year’s Oktoberfest to a close. “It went really well,” reflected Anna Santschi (’24). “The highlight of the night was definitely the keg-rolling competition!”