Confusion adds to intrigue during Sigma Tau’s Mad Hatter Tea Party

Luke Scholars in Dr. Haley’s Inklings class participates in Sigma Tau’s Mad Hatter Tea Party and talk with other students.

Photo Credit: Michal Black

By: Michal Black

Students were boggled as they entered their usual quiet study area to find tables filled with coffee, tea, and desserts during Sigma Tau’s Mad Hatter Tea Party in J-top from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. on Tuesday.

Many students expressed confusion about the event despite the posters that were up around campus.

Junior Vivian Marshall said that the event was a great way to get students interested in Sigma Tau because of this confusion, and noted how well the tea party set the Wonderland and Mad Hatter tone.

“My first thought when I walked up, honestly, was that it looked like the actual tea party from the movie ‘Alice in Wonderland’…it was organized but in an upside-down sort of way,” said Marshall. “It’s a great way to get people interested in Sigma Tau. I did know (it was happening today) but I forgot about it.”

Students enjoyed tea from real teacups, coffee, and various snacks, including cookies, brownies, and cucumber sandwiches during the tea party, though there were issues with washing the teacups.

“Dr. Haley said to wash the teacups…. but since there was no water (in J-top) here today…. they (the teacups) are not washed, which I feel is more in the spirit of things because that is what they did in the original Mad Hatter Tea Party,” junior Anika Bjordahl said.

The Mad Hatter Tea Party had been a tradition for Sigma Tau since 2016 but was discontinued following the COVID shutdown in 2020.

A couple years later the tea party made a re-appearance, but only for a year before it once again discontinued.

The tea party was brought back to stay this year due to an increase in student leadership.

Mi-Ree Zwick, who is also a reporter for The Sower, is the president of Sigma Tau, Concordia’s English Honor’s Society, said the goal of the tea party was to help advertise the club.

Dr. Gabriel Haley, the Sigma Tau advisor and professor of English, said that while the party is meant to be fun, it is also a recruitment event for Sigma Tau.

“There is no point, it’s a Mad Hatter Tea Party,” said Haley. “Part of it is to raise awareness for our English Honor’s Society, but I like to say that it is just for its own sake, because it’s Mad.”

The Mad Hatter Tea Party is held on October 6 because of the original “Alice in Wonderland” story.

“It is 10/6 or October 6th which is Official Mad Hatter Day!” said Haley. “It became Mad Hatter Day because that is the price tag on the Mad Hatter’s hat in the original illustrations of ‘Alice in Wonderland’.”

There was a bit of controversy as to the truth of Haley’s statement, though.

“The Mad Hatter birthday is actually celebrating one of the Mad Hatter’s many un-birthdays because the card in his hat says ‘10/6’ and in Great Britain that would be 10th of June not the 6th of October,” said Dr. Hannah Kroonblawd, assistant professor of English.

The Mad Hatter is British so it would make sense to read the card the British way, but Dr. Haley says, “The mad way to read 10/6 would be the American way.”