RAG
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de:Rag University Rag societies are student-run charitable fundraising organisations that are widespread in the United Kingdom. Many universities about the country, and even a couple in South Africa have a Rag. In some universities Rags are known as Charity Appeals, Charity Kommittees, or Karnivals, but they all share many of the same attributes, and together raise over a million pounds for charity each year.
In modern times "RAG" (all capitals) has come to stand for "Raise and Give" or "Raising and Giving", but there are many different explanations for how the name originally came about - and where it originated. What's not in doubt is that Rag has existed in some form for well over a hundred years.
Traditionally fundraising activities have centered around an annual Rag Week, in which students would take part in many events (and often perform crazy stunts) to raise money for charity. In most universities fundraising is now year-round and more professional, although pie-ing, naked calendars and kidnapping often still play a role.
Many people will have heard of Rag primarily because of a 'Rag mag' - a small booklet traditionally filled very un-PC humour sold to the local community during Rag Week. Some university Rags with a strong local tradition still sell their (substantially cleaner and funnier) Rag Mags, whilst others use theirs more as information-tools for new students wanting to know more about Rag.
These days the fundraising comes in two main forms:
Charity Events: The society organises and runs many events throughout the year for students and the public alike ranging from Pub Crawls to Jailbreaks, from City-wide processions to Bungee Jumping and Parachuting.
Street Collections: Currently known as 'Raids', collectors go out into the streets in different costumes to collect for a specific charity on any given day with buckets rather than the clipboards. Larger events are organised between universities across the country for major collections. The biggest being at Edinburgh for New Year's, in Newcastle in October, and in the City of London over the Summer and at Easter. Many Rags also organise week-long 'Tours' over the university holidays in which they will travel from town to town, collecting in each one, and raising thousand of pounds for the beneficiary charity.
External link
- UKRAG.net - What is RAG? (http://www.ukrag.net/whatisrag.html)
See also
- Joke
- Rag (cloth)
- Rag (music)
- Rag (newspaper)
- Rag doll
- Rag trade
- Ragman
- Rag Morris
- Ragtime
- Repertorium Academicum Germanicum
- Resource allocation graph