Green Beer Day (GBD) is an unofficial day-long party near the Miami University campus, where celebrants drink beer dyed green with artificial coloring or natural processes. The tradition was started by bar owners in Oxford, Ohio, and is celebrated annually on the Thursday before Miami University's spring break. Green Beer Day started in the early 1980s after a change in Miami University's academic calendar caused St. Patrick's Day to fall during spring break when students were gone. Local bar owners tried various names for their new day of drinking (including "Wild Irish Fun" in 1981) [1] before settling on the name "Green Beer Day" in 1982. [2] Claims that Green Beer Day began in 1952 are wrong. Green beer was consumed in Oxford on St. Patrick's Day (March 17) [3] prior to the university calendar change just as it was all over the country. Green Beer Day has been called Miami University's "biggest tradition" [4] although it is not sanctioned by the university. [5]
Students begin to drink as early as 1 to 5 A.M. on Green Beer Day; [6] [7] bars in Oxford open at 5 A.M. [8] Many students embark on their first successful entrepreneurial venture on Green Beer Day, selling iconic green shirts [6] to drink in throughout the day. The rise in popularity of this annual celebration has given rise to many pop up apparel companies that sell Green Beer Day apparel in the weeks leading up to the event. [9]
Miami University actively tries to fight Green Beer Day's binge drinking culture and encourages instructors to remove students who arrive to class inebriated on the day. [7] [10] While Miami students recognize Green Beer Day, Miami threatened legal action against the owner of the domain www.greenbeerday.com for using the Miami name without permission. [11] Miami changed its timing of its Spring Break in 2009, allowing students to celebrate both Green Beer Day and St. Patrick's Day; when asked if the change was intended to allow Miami students to celebrate twice, Steve Snyder, the executive assistant to the President of the university, responded, "Miami University has nothing whatsoever to do with Green Beer Day." [12] In 2017, Ohio State Highway Patrol and four other police agencies conducted OVI stops and the Oxford Police Department plainclothes operations to stop underage drinkers. [5]
After the death of a student in 2017 from alcohol-related issues, Miami University President Gregory Crawford met with community leaders to combat binge drinking culture in preparation for Green Beer Day. [10] Oxford liquor license holders agreed to open fewer bars early in the morning, and fraternities agreed to avoid serving hard liquor at parties. [10] Before Green Beer Day, Miami's student government launched a campaign called "Life is Priceless" encouraging students to call 911 and highlighting Miami's Good Samaritan policy. [13]
Students have criticized the university for refusing to recognize one of its biggest traditions, and the Miami Student editorial board has criticized the university for trying to destroy it as a yearly event. [11] [14] Miami alumni have begun to celebrate the event in other cities, with an especially large event occurring annually in Chicago, Illinois. [15]
Drinking games are games which involve the consumption of alcoholic beverages and often enduring the subsequent intoxication resulting from them. Evidence of the existence of drinking games dates back to antiquity. Drinking games have been banned at some institutions, particularly colleges and universities.
A pub is in several countries a drinking establishment licensed to serve alcoholic drinks for consumption on the premises. The term first appeared in England in the late 17th century, to differentiate private houses from those open to the public as alehouses, taverns and inns. Today, there is no strict definition, but the Campaign for Real Ale (CAMRA) states a pub has four characteristics:
Saint Patrick's Day, or the Feast of Saint Patrick, is a religious and cultural holiday held on 17 March, the traditional death date of Saint Patrick, the foremost patron saint of Ireland.
A boilermaker is either of two types of beer cocktail. In American terminology, the drink consists of a glass of beer mixed with a shot of whiskey.
Beer pong, also known as Beirut, is a drinking game in which players throw a ping pong ball across a table with the intent of landing the ball in a cup of beer on the other end. The game typically consists of opposing teams of two or more players per side with 6 or 10 cups set up in a triangle formation on each side. Each team then takes turns attempting to throw ping-pong balls into the opponent's cups. If the team "makes" a cup - that is, the ball lands in it, and stays in it - the contents of the cup are consumed by the other team and the cup is removed from the table. The first team to eliminate all of the opponent's cups is the winner.
Miami University is a public research university in Oxford, Ohio, United States. Founded in 1809, it is the second-oldest university in Ohio and the tenth-oldest public university in the United States. The school's system comprises the main campus in Oxford, as well as regional campuses in nearby Hamilton, Middletown, and West Chester, Ohio. Miami also maintains an international boarding campus, the Dolibois European Center in Differdange, Luxembourg.
A pub crawl is the act of visiting multiple pubs or bars in a single session.
Drinking culture is a subset of alcohol use situated within the larger scope of drug culture. Drinking culture encompasses the traditions, rituals, and social behaviors associated with consumption of alcoholic beverages as a recreational drug and social lubricant. Although alcoholic beverages and social attitudes toward drinking vary around the world, nearly every civilization has independently discovered the processes of brewing beer, fermenting wine, and distilling spirits, among other practices. Many countries have developed their own regional cultures based on unique traditions around the fermentation and consumption of alcohol, which may also be known as a beer culture, wine culture etc. after a particularly prominent type of drink.
An izakaya is a type of informal Japanese bar that serves alcoholic drinks and snacks. Izakaya are casual places for after-work drinking, similar to a pub, a Spanish tapas bar, or an American saloon or tavern.
Beer pong is a drinking game loosely based on ping pong that involves the use of paddles to hit a ping pong ball into cups on the opposing side. The origin of beer pong is generally credited to Dartmouth College.
An Irish car bomb, Irish slammer, Irish bomb shot, or Dublin drop is a cocktail, similar to a boilermaker, made by dropping a bomb shot of Irish cream and Irish whiskey into a glass of Irish stout.
Four Loko is a line of alcoholic beverages sold by Phusion Projects of Chicago, Illinois, United States. Four Loko's recipe formerly included caffeine. Phusion operates as Drink Four Brewing Company. Four Loko, the company's most popular beverage, debuted in the United States market in 2005 and is available in 49 states, and in 21 countries including Ecuador, Guatemala, Paraguay, The Bahamas, Peru, Mexico, Colombia, Bolivia, Honduras, El Salvador, Nicaragua, Costa Rica, China, Canada and some countries in Europe. The name "Four" is derived from the original drink having four "key ingredients".
Drinks containing alcohol are typically divided into three classes—beers, wines, and spirits—with alcohol contents between 3% and 50%.
Alcohol has been consumed in New Zealand since the arrival of Europeans. The most popular alcoholic beverage is beer. The legal age to purchase alcohol is 18. New Zealand has an above average consumption rate of alcohol, in 2016 ranking 32nd globally in per-capita total alcohol consumption.
Alcohol is commonly consumed and available at pubs and liquor stores in Australia – all of which are private enterprises. Spirits can be purchased at liquor stores and pubs, whereas most grocery stores do not sell them, although they may have separate liquor stores on their premises. Alcohol consumption is higher, according to WHO studies, than in most European countries and several Central Asian and African countries, although consumption is just as high in Australia as in North America. After tobacco, alcohol is the second leading preventable cause of death and hospitalisation in Australia.
Binge drinking is the practice of consuming excessive amounts of alcohol in a short period of time. Due to the idiosyncrasies of the human body, the exact amount of alcohol that would constitute binge drinking differs among individuals. The definitions of binge drinking are also nuanced across cultures and population subgroups. For example, many studies use gender-specific measures of binge drinking. The epidemiology of binge drinking likewise differs across cultures and population subgroups.
Many college campuses throughout the United States have some form of alcohol advertising including flyers on bulletin boards to mini billboard signs on college buses. It is so prevalent on college campuses especially because college students are considered the "targeted marketing group," meaning that college students are more likely to consume larger qualities of alcohol than any other age group, which makes them the prime consumers of alcohol in the United States.
Pregaming is the process of getting drunk prior to going out socializing, typically done by college students and young adults in a manner as cost-efficient as possible, with hard liquor and cheap beer consumed while in group.
The traditions of Bates College include the activities, songs, and academic regalia of Bates College, a private liberal arts college in Lewiston, Maine. They are well known on campus and nationally as an embedded component of the student life at the college and its history.
An alcohol-free zone, or dry zone, is a geographic area, location or establishment where the public consumption and sale of alcoholic beverages is prohibited. Alcohol-free zones have been established in some areas to address problems with drinking- and binge drinking-related crime, antisocial behavior, assaults and disorderly behavior. Alcohol-free zones have been opposed in some communities, such as in Bath, England, which has "a tradition of open-air bars and restaurants."