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 A student is a person enrolled in a school or other educational institution. In the United Kingdom and most commonwealth countries, a "student" attends a secondary school or higher (e.g., college or university); those in primary or elementa ...

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 feature ...

which starts with a more or less formal dinner. The word is believed to have originated from the card game

Vira Vira may refer to: Places *Vira, Ariège, a commune in the Ariège department, France *Vira (Gambarogno), a municipality in the canton of Ticino, Switzerland *Vira, Kutch, a village in Kutch district of Gujarat, India *Vira, Pyrénées-Orientales ...

, 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 Stockholm University ( sv, Stockholms universitet) is a public research university in Stockholm, Sweden, founded as a college in 1878, with university status since 1960. With over 33,000 students at four different faculties: law, humanities, s ...

and the

Royal Institute of Technology The KTH Royal Institute of Technology ( sv, Kungliga Tekniska högskolan, lit=Royal Institute of Technology), abbreviated KTH, is a public research university in Stockholm, Sweden. KTH conducts research and education in engineering and technol ...

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 A students' union, also known by many other names, is a student organization present in many colleges, universities, and high schools. In higher education, the students' union is often accorded its own building on the campus, dedicated to social ...

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 lev ...

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 {{sweden-stub