Seven Society
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
The Seven Society (founded circa 1905) is the most secretive of the University of Virginia's secret societies. Members are only revealed after their death, when a wreath of black magnolias in the shape of a "7" is placed at the gravesite, the bell tower of the University Chapel chimes at seven-second intervals for seven minutes on the seventh dissonant chord, and a notice is published in the University's Alumni News, and often in the Cavalier Daily.
The formation of the society is only speculated. Some hold with the rumor that, of eight men who planned to meet for a card game, only seven showed up. Students supposedly are "tapped" for admission during their third year and become members during their fourth year at U.Va. The most noted tradition of the society is the painting of the number "7" upon many buildings around the grounds of the University.
The group contributes financially to the University, announcing donations with letters signed only with seven astronomical symbols in the order: Earth, Jupiter, Mercury, Mars, Neptune, Uranus, and Venus. Saturn and Pluto are not included. The Society gives large monetary donations and scholarships to the University each year in quantities that include the number 7, e.g. $777 or $1,777. In addition to granting spontaneous gifts, it sponsors an annual $7,000 graduate fellowship award for superb teaching.
The only known method to successfully contact the Seven Society is to place a letter at the base of the Thomas Jefferson statue inside the University's historic Rotunda.
These traditions have been imitated at other college and boarding-school campuses over the years (e.g., Seven Society, Order of the Crown and Dagger at the College of William & Mary). Photographs of UNC-Chapel Hill buildings of the 1950s depict the society's distinctive "7" symbol, though it is not clear that any such group survives there.
[edit] References
- Cavalier Daily, September 4, 2003, November 10, 2005, October 2, 2003
- Virginius Dabney, Mr. Jefferson's University: A History, University Press of Virginia, 1988.
