Cambridge has many traditions, from punting on the River Cam to afternoon tea, but my favorite so far has been Formal Hall. I have been to two at Pembroke College already, and I love how different it feels from a normal dinner. You dress up, put a black academic gown over your outfit, and eat a three-course meal inside a historic college dining hall. Pembroke also has a reputation among students for having some of the best Formal Hall food in Cambridge, and honestly, the meals I have had there have been so good. The whole experience feels formal, old-fashioned, and very Cambridge, which is exactly why I love it.
I learned about Formal Hall, a Cambridge tradition with roots going back hundreds of years. Pembroke College was founded in 1347, and its original buildings already included a dining hall, kitchen, and buttery (a storage room connected to the the dining hall to store drinks) because students and scholars lived and ate together as one college community. Over time, these shared meals became more ceremonial, but many of the old traditions stayed. At Pembroke today, students still wear black academic gowns over their formal clothes, stand for a Latin grace before dinner, and eat a multi-course meal together in Hall.
