A gask, or gasque, is a kind of
Swedish
Swedish or ' may refer to:
Anything from or related to Sweden, a country in Northern Europe. Or, specifically:
* Swedish language, a North Germanic language spoken primarily in Sweden and Finland
** Swedish alphabet, the official alphabet used by ...
student party
A party is a gathering of people who have been invited by a host for the purposes of socializing, conversation, recreation, or as part of a festival or other commemoration or celebration of a special occasion. A party will often featur ...
which starts with a more or less
formal dinner
Dinner usually refers to what is in many Western cultures the largest and most formal meal of the day, which is eaten in the evening. Historically, the largest meal used to be eaten around midday, and called dinner. Especially among the elite, ...
. The word is believed to have originated from the card game
Vira, popular in the 19th century.
Background
In some cities, gask is generally used to refer to a party with a formal dress code. Students at
Stockholm University and the
Royal Institute of Technology generally use the term gasque to refer to a gask where the dress code is a
student boilersuit.
[https://www.uppsalastudentkar.se/international-students/life-uppsala/useful-links/going-gasque]
In some cases, gasque might also be the name of an actual building, often a building belonging to the
student union arranging the gasque, as in the case of
Chalmers University of Technology
Chalmers University of Technology ( sv, Chalmers tekniska högskola, often shortened to Chalmers) is a Swedish university located in Gothenburg that conducts research and education in technology and natural sciences at a high international leve ...
in
Gothenburg.
Many universities also have thematic gasques, as well as slasques (pun on "slask", 'slush, slop'), which are less tidy gatherings.
References
Student culture
Swedish culture
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