TRADITIONS
The Reserve Officer School’s history reaches back over a hundred years. During its existence, a remarkable amount of traditions and heritage pieces have arisen to the delight of our students. For the most part these events and objects are the creation of our students. Amongst our students, the ”ROS-spirit” has been dear in the establishment of our traditions, and it still flows through each and every current and future student during their trip to Hamina. Here’s but a few of our traditions.
THE RESERVE OFFICER SCHOOL’S FLAG
Reserve Officer Course 14 continued an idea originating out of Course 10 of a common flag to unite the entire school. Monetary funds were needed for the flag, along with a so called flag right. Both were quickly acquired and a motion to confirm Carolus Lindberg’s design as official was sent to Defence Command on the 23th of February 1928.
The nowadays traditional flag was adopted in Senate Square in Helsinki on the 16th of May 1928. The uppermost banners in the flag contain the abbreviations of both the Reserve Officer School as well as its predecessor, the Military School of Vimpeli. The lower banners contain the years of founding for both – the Military School of Vimpeli was founded in 1917. The highly revered Cross of Liberty along with its ribbons flies in the tip of the flag. It was awarded to the Reserve Officer School by Marshal of Finland C.G.E Mannerheim for the school’s valuable work for the nation.
The flag has remained unaltered for over 90 years and five reproductions have been made through the years. Three of them are in the collection of The Military Museum and one is located in Hamina’s ROS-Museum. The fifth flag remains in use in ROS.
THE UNIT EMBLEM OF THE RESERVE OFFICER SCHOOL
The head of decoration for the Course 4 course ball was none other than Alvar Aalto. He designed a banner located in the corner of Maneesi, which over the years became the official unit emblem for the Reserve Officer School. The emblem is among the oldest in Finland. It was adopted in to use on Course 11 the year 1926 and has remained near unchanged.
The sole alteration was made in 1929, when the swords in the emblem were turned to face up. In heraldry, downwards facing swords signify surrender, which did not fit the emblem of the Reserve Officer School. In fact, even the upward-facing swords are not fully heraldically correct, since the sword located closer to the heart should be on the top.
THE RESERVE OFFICER SCHOOL COURSE BADGE
The famous course badge, the ”ROS-Cross”, dates back to the same time as the flag. The cross was adopted by Course 5 in 1923. In the beginning, the outlook of the badge changed by course, yet all were in the shape of a cross. Since Course 62 the ROS-Cross has remained unchanged containing a blue St. George’s Cross under a lion on top of an heraldic rose. The cross is highly revered and its use is permitted even in civilian formal dress along with other orders.
KIRKKOJÄRVI MARCH
A variety of different competitions between the units have always been popular in ROS. The Kirkkojärvi march is often regarded as the king of the competitions. A good twenty kilometer double march was born in the midst of 1930s. During wartime the march was not held.
After wartime the march returned to be a part of the Reserve Officer Course. At first it was held by the Student Council – meaning that it was held by officer students. Even if the rules have changed by great margins both in length and place (Kirkkojärvi has not been ran around in decades), the competition still greatly increases solidarity and team spirit among the officer students.
ISOYMPYRÄVIESTI
The Course includes the traditionally ran Isoympyräviesti, to which representative teams are invited e.g. from other Reserve Officer Schools, Police University College and National Defence University. The 3600 meters long relay competition used to be ran around the street of Isoympyrä, but nowadays it’s held entirely inside the garrison. There’s two leagues: Invitational league and Unit league. In addition to invited quests the Student Council Board and staff also participate in the Invitational league. In the Unit league the base units of the Reserve Officer Course compete in 10-man teams.
RUK-CUP
The RUK-CUP is a competition organized by the student council, where different units from the Reserve Officer School compete against each other in several fun events. The structure of the competition may vary depending on the course, but it traditionally includes events such as the monk relay, vehicle pulling, and the antitank mine crucifix.
BREADING OF VARVARA
Breading of Varvara is a old tradition of the Reserve Officer School, in which bread has no part despite the name. In the Breading officer students lay flowers down by the statue of Varvara Schantini, which was revealed in the year 1972. Widow of an officer, Varvara was one of the most loved people in the very first courses. She sold officer students (then officer cadets) Ahola bakery treats from her cart in the garrison grounds and in forest exercises. She also gave officer students valuable tips as to where to group up for defense or how to act in different situations with experience from tens of courses.
MEMORIAL STATUE OF FALLEN OFFICERS
“You didn’t fight for nothing, you didn’t fall for nothing.” Yrjö Jylhä’s poem’s verse is easy to relate to. Maybe that’s why the words are also imprinted in the Memorial Statue of Fallen Officers in front of the Main Building. The statue was planned to be built right after the wars, but financial troubles moved the building late into the 1950s.
A special statue committee was founded to design and fund the statue. Son of the president Kyösti Kallio, artist Kalervo Kallio won the contest for designing the statue. While building, officer students made a considerable effort with planting and foundations of the statue. The statue was revealed in the course 94 in 1957. Contemporary president Urho Kekkonen was present in the revealing event.
SWORD OF THE VALEDICTORIAN
Tradition of the valedictorian’s sword begun in 1946, when Finnish Reserve Officer Union was anonymously gifted 225 000 contemporary marks. The money was supposed to be used to award the most successful officer students and it was decided to be done by awarding the valedictorian a real Army officer sword. The same kind of sword was used already in the founding year of the Reserve Officer School in 1920.
Finnish Reserve Officer Union gifted the first sword in the year 1948 after the supervisory commission left the country. Sword of the valedictorian has been awarded to 185 officer students, two of whom have been women.
BLOOD DONATION
The Reserve Officer Course has a tradition of organising a blood donation event in cooperation with the Finnish Red Cross. The blood donation has already been organised over 140 times.