Rituals at Lowell

The weekly Lowell House tea, held in the master’s residence

Return to main article:

Each Thursday afternoon, in the master’s residence at Lowell House, there is a tea, and “It is packed!” according to master Diana Eck, who has headed the house with co-master Dorothy Austin since 1998. “Tea is one ritual most beloved by students.” Typically 150 to 200 show up to drink tea and eat egg-salad sandwiches, cookies, and even baked Brie set out by work-study students. Masters and tutors are there, and Lowellians can invite friends from other houses as well. In warmer weather the crowd spills into the courtyard. “It’s also a kind of glue for the community,” says Eck. “The weekly teas are something we invest in.”

“There is no community without ritual,” Eck explains. “Ritual creates a sense of we. Here, we do have the advantage of these beautiful courtyards. We do have a significant history that we recount to students: we wrote a booklet about all the portraits that hang in the house. Students have a sense that their place matters.

Throughout the year there are ritual events. Trivia Nights occur once per semester, with members of the Senior Common Room (SCR) squaring off against students. Before the Christmas break, Lowell has a Yule Dinner (“We play to the pagan substructure of everything,” Eck says) at which House Committee members carry in the decorated Yule log and toss it onto the hearth. Singer-songwriter Livingston Taylor, a Lowell SCR member who formerly lived in the house for years as a resident artist, wrote an anthem, “Forever Lowell,” that sometimes plays a part in house events.

The best-known of Lowell’s traditions is its High Table, a black-tie dinner held eight times a year for seniors, who are invited, one entryway at a time, to dine with members of the SCR on an elevated platform at one end of the house dining hall. “It feels as if you’re in a special world,” says Eck; the meal is served family-style, with wine and candlesticks, as the rest of the dining hall goes through the servery line and looks admiringly on.

Click here for the November-December 2013 issue table of contents

Sub topics

You might also like

Small Talk, From Afar

Student ham enthusiasts turn back time.

Commencement and Alumni Events

Harvard Commencement and Alumni Events 2025

Music and Medicine

Toussaint Miller explores the healing power of art.


Most popular

The New Gender Gaps

What to do as men and boys fall behind

Danielle Allen Debates Far-Right Blogger Curtis Yarvin

Popular monarchist debates Allen on democracy.

Harvard President Responds to Secretary of Education

Alan Garber outlines steps the University has taken, and emphasizes compliance with the law.

Explore More From Current Issue

Restaurant Recommendations Cambridge 2025

Tastes from Cambridge’s eclectic restaurants

Biology's "Mirror Organisms"—And Their Dangers

Life forms built from left-handed DNA and RNA could threaten Earth’s plants, animals, and insects.

The Franklin Stove—A Historical Climate Change Adaptation

Historian Joyce E. Chaplin reinterprets an early era of invention, industrialization, and climate challenge