St Andrews University gets messy as first year students celebrate 'Raisin Monday'

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Raisin Monday marks end of weekend where new students are 'parented' by older students
Tradition dates back 600 years; students would present academic 'parents' with a pound of raisins
Failure to offer present results in a 'dousing', the modern day version of which is a foam party
Former alumni include Duke and Duchess of Wales and Bake Off star Flora Snedden is a new student

Published: 09:13 EST, 19 October 2015 | Updated: 16:46 EST, 19 October 2015

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For a few hours this lunchtime, the lawns around St Andrews University did a very good impression of deep mid-winter.

A closer look revealed it wasn't snow that had descended on the hallowed grounds around the Lower College Lawn however, but foam... gallons of it.

Hundreds of students gathered to throw clumps of foam at each other, and it was all in the name of university tradition.

Scroll down for images

Dousing good fun! Two students get to grips with each other at the annual St Andrews foam party

The messy fiesta takes place annually on the Lower College Lawn with hundreds of students joining in the fun

Before things turned completely white, the students' fancy dress was easier to see

The St Andrews annual foam fight is the messy crescendo to a 48-hour frenzy of humiliation - known as Raisin Week - where first year students are given tasks by older students, dubbed 'parents'.

It's a tradition that dates back around 600 years and the name derives from when new students would offer a handful of raisins to older students in exchange for showing them around the university. A more typical present these days might be a bottle of wine.

Guardians have been known to present large items such as canoes, brass beds and once a bath tub as receipts in return.

The custom ends the following day with a procession and foam fight in the heart of the campus of the university, which was founded in 1413.

Students are routinely warned that any illegal or disruptive behaviour could put the future of the tradition at stake.

The foam flew! The annual party celebrates the end of Raisin Weekend, when new pupils are offered 'academic' parents in the shape of older students

Slippery when wet: Students clamber on to the shoulders of their fellow students

Eye-eye! Some wore masks to prevent the foam from finding its way into their eyes, while others took the hit directly

Armed with cans of foam, the students, many of them in fancy dress didn't hold back when it came to covering each other with the white stuff.

Many were quickly unrecognisable, just a pair of eyes blinking through the foam. Other adopted new hairstyles using the foam as a makeshift hair gel.

The university's alumni include the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge and this year's Bake Off star Flora Shedden is among the freshers who've recently started their studies at the Scottish coastal town although there was no word as to whether Flora joined in the celebrations.