A dragon will rise from the depths of Rand Hall Friday. After weeks of preparation, first-year architecture students will enliven a tradition established by Willard Straight 1901, more than a century ago: Dragon Day. Festivities will commence at 1 p.m. on University Avenue.

Activities related to this year’s Dragon Day celebration began weeks ago. By inundating University buildings with flashy posters, spreading the word on Facebook and launching dragonday2010.org, the newest members of the “archie” clan promoted the sale of the event’s usually funky t-shirts.

Earlier this week, however, the freshman architects abandoned the confines of Rand Hall toBlowing smoke: First-year Architecture students work to construct their dragon, which will make its debut at the Dragon Day festivites Friday afternoon. - By: Yi-Ke Peng advertise Dragon Day to their fellow Cornellians. During the past few days, architects could be seen running through campus barely clothed and painted green, invading libraries during the daily “study night rush” dressed up as nerds or — just last night — mooning against Uris Library’s Fish Bowl.

Tradition dictates that after parading their dragon around campus, architecture students gather on the Arts Quad to burn it down.

However, since last year’s Dragon Day, a New York state environmental regulation prevents the century-old ritual to conclude in fire. To avoid pollution, the state’s Department of Conservation recently enacted a law that only allows the open burning of agricultural products, like solid wood. This makes it illegal to burn paint, burlap and steel in open spaces — materials with which architects commonly construct their mythological beasts.

As a result, the workshops of Rand Hall have been filled with a mixture of enthusiasm and disappointment in anticipation of Dragon Day.

“Burning the dragon is the most important part of the whole Dragon Day tradition,” Roberto Soto ’14 said. “While selling the t-shirts, some people refused to buy them because they knew, from last year’s event, that the dragon cannot be burned.”

In order to maintain the essence of the festivity, Erin Pellegrino ’14, co-president of the Dragon Day steering committee, along with many of her peers, talked to University administrators to try to obtain some kind of special concession that could allow them to burn the dragon. Although they could not obtain such a permit, Pellegrino said that they will continue their efforts so that the burning of the Dragon is reinstated for future celebrations.

Nonetheless, both Soto and Pellegrino affirmed that their “dragon is going to make a statement.”

However, the architecture students ultimately see this limitation as a good reason for reinventing Dragon Day and making the tradition their own.

For Ariel Selter ’14, not been able to burn the dragon provides them with the opportunity of “carrying out the tradition in a different way, while adapting to current times.”

Similarly, Charlotte Firestone ’14 said that the festivity is “still going to be a great time.” She said that they had built an “awesome dragon and that [they] will party hard.”