I think they're horrible... esp. when people have died because of them. Read on to decide for yourself -

Downing a pint containing a live goldfish, eating raw squid and wearing kippers around necks are among the bizarre and sometimes dangerous initiation ceremonies at Cambridge University, it has been disclosed.
The tests - organised by sport and drinking clubs for first years - usually involve excessive amounts of alcohol and can include carrying out degrading and depraved acts often by female students.
According to the university's student newspaper Varsity, which compiled the list, many of the rituals are carried out shirtless because they often involve vomiting.
But while many consider them to part of the "tradition" of the university, others including the National Union of Students have called for them to be banned.
New members of The Wyverns, Magdalene College's men's drinking society, have to eat a 15 course meal with delicacies such as a pig's snout with wasabi sauce and a pint of water with a goldfish swimming inside.
"If this is regurgitated with the said creature still alive, it exempts the diner from two of the following courses," said Varsity magazine.
This year's initiation, which took place last week, featured raw leeks, whole, uncooked squids and entire chillies. Four prospective members then had kippers put round their necks and had to down four pints in three minutes, each containing food, spices and other foreign liquids.
Members of another university society, the Beefsteak Club, are treated to a lavish seven-course dinner, each dish accompanied by a bottle of wine, Varsity reveals. The meal is served in a room with tarpaulin covering every surface.
Those joining the Ferretz, an inter-collegiate drinking society, have to consume 80 units beginning with a bottle of gin and finishing with a bottle of port, consumed through a condom.
Many female societies at the University prefer to set girls tasks such as collecting obscure items of clothing from strangers, kissing strangers and dressing up. The Newnham Nuns' ceremony involves eating liquorice held between a stranger's teeth and the girl is expected to kiss him when she reaches his lips. New members also have to put a condom on a banana using only their mouths.
An 18-year-old first-year Exeter student died from alcohol poisoning in 2006 after drinking four vodkas, three pints of cider, a glass of wine and numerous sambucas before downing a pint of spirits as part of a golf club initiation. Another died in 2003 after choking on his own vomit.

Also, check out the pics here:
http://www.thesun.co.uk/sol/homepage/news/article2213124.ece
Source(s):
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/education/universityeducation/4538565/Shocking-C...


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