We’ve all been there: you’re in a bar on Oude Markt with your friends enjoying a few drinks, when suddenly a group of students, usually male, enters with lots of singing, cheering and shouting. They go straight for the bar, pour beers down their throats like there’s no tomorrow and simply take over the place. It doesn’t require a rocket scientist to understand that this is a social student organisation – also known as a student club – because of the similar sweaters or shirts they wear. But what is the meaning of those ribbons they wear?

The clubs who traditionally wear a ribbon are examples of the oldest forms of student associations. They don’t unite based on their faculty or department, but on their region of offspring in Flanders. There are 43 clubs in Leuven, divided in five guilds which are based on the five provinces of Flanders. More than half of these clubs are however inactive. All clubs are united in the SK or convent of seniors. A special mentioning is needed for the clubs of Dutch students in Leuven, the student marching band and the KVHV, a more politically inspired club. There is also a convent of seniors of all-girls clubs, which unites fourteen clubs of which about half are active. Club life lost a lot of its appeal in the eighties and nineties due to the democratisation of higher education, but their customs have survived nevertheless. There are two types of organisations who – amongst other rituals – have recycled the custom of wearing ribbons. There are the faculty organisations, who wear their ribbons on special occasions like balls or ceremonies. Other faculty organisations are however strongly opposed to the wearing of ribbons or other symbols that refer to ancient rituals. Secondly there is the new phenomenon of groups of friends that unite themselves in clubs. They however have little to do with club or faculty life.

To find the correct information on ribbons and other symbols such as the club hat or the rituals that need to be respected during a cantus, one must always turn to the bible of student life, the codex. In it we find that to wear the colours of your club, you present yourself as its representative. This requires dignity and the symbols should always be treated with respect by its owner. There is a different ribbon for the praeses or head of a student club. His ribbon is 2,10m long and 12cm wide. The codex describes the fashion to wear it up to the smallest details. Common club members have a much thinner ribbon, only 27mm. The colours of the club are reflected on the ribbon. You can also derive the status of a member by the fashion in which they wear their ribbon. A freshman is obligated to wear it over the left shoulder, elder members wear it over the right shoulder. One person wears two ribbons when in function and that is the master of the freshmen. A club can also award a ribbon to an honorary member or on a special occasion. Ribbons are worn during meetings, gatherings, manifestations, parties and balls organised by the clubs and similar organisations. The faculty organisations have abandoned the smaller ribbons and use broad ones for all praesidium members.

The ribbons have however for many people switched from status symbols to signs of elitism and even exclusion. That is why certain bars and fakbars prohibit the entrance of club members when in their outfits, wearing their ribbons. The contra-side will point to acts of violence, harassment and drunkenness to support this rule. The pro-side will state that it is an element of tradition and history and should therefore be respected. Either way, the ribbon as a symbol of student life in its most early form is still present in Leuven and visible for all. Now that you know what it means, you can start forming your own opinion whether such a thing should be worn or not.