secion leader has a whistle that says 'percussion section leader' on it and every section leader that graduates picks the next one and gives him/her the whistle

Theres another two that we just started a bit ago...

1. we play "stalker" (stick soccer with the freshmen drumsticks)
and
2. We take broken sticks and glue them perfectly together and let the freshmen borrow them. They break after about 3 or 4 hits.

I'm seeing some really horrendous traditions right now. You need to start considering what you're doing to the band or in the post above, the freshmen. All I'll say is you better think about dropping some of these because they may be fun for you but it definitely hurts others.

Our rookies have to eat/drink something disgusting. When I did it I had to drink non-alcoholic Mexican beer.......EWWWWWWWW.

My high school line always shared a bag of peanuts during warmup at our competitions. We would stand in a circle to hide our peanuts from all other bands warming up. All of the shells would be left in a pile in the middle of the circle. Our percussion instructor reported back to us a conversation one day between some of the bands in the class above us that always saw our leavings. The peanut piles became a natural anomoly. Also before all competitions and games we made "stick love". Every member of the line had to rub sticks with all other members. The more sensual the rubbing the better if you catch my drift. Our instructor condoned and encouraged both of these "rituals". The one our instructor hated was a song that we sang on the way to all performances and from well done performances. The song wasn't suggestive, it was blatently absurd.

yeah we have a 'drum circle' b4 every competition. it gets us in the mood.... its a big like huddle-ish lookin thing and we all pick a tone and beat and 'talk dirty drum' lol.... our drum instructors never participate but they watch and think its funny! so yeah our other tradition is to sign a ceiling tile in our band room... one of our tenor players started it and every year the seniors get to sign the tile! cant wait til i get to sign it! yessss! but the tile is def only a drumline thing the band saw it and wants to sign it but hell no they rnt cool enuf 4 that!

Of course the rest of the band is cool enough...

Traditions...hmm.. Well, we do have a stick from about 6 or 7 years ago that one of our former bass players had used and we hold it in the air huddle around it. We then proceed with our drumline song. Everyone in the band knows about it but only we know the words. It's basically a sacred stick that sits underneath a shed the whole time. I don't even know if it is still there.