Class reunion

"High school reunion" redirects here. For other uses, see High School Reunion.

"School reunion" redirects here. For the Doctor Who episode, see School Reunion (Doctor Who).

For other uses, see Class Reunion (disambiguation).

File:YaleClassOf1835ClassReunionNotice1850.jpg

Class reunion invitation, Yale College, 1850

A class reunion is a meeting of former classmates, typically organized at or near their former school by one or a group of the class members on or around an anniversary of their graduation, e.g. 5 years later. Former teachers may be invited as well. They reminisce about their school days and bring each other up to date on what has happened since they went their separate ways.

Some class reunions also include a reunion class gift to the institution.

File:CALUMET HS CLASS OF 67 DSC01900.JPG

people in class reunion of Calumet High School, Michigan

File:Maturatreffen1975c.jpg

class reunion in Vienna with the participation of former teachers

Class reunions in film and literature

In film and literature, especially comedy, crime novels, thrillers, and psychological suspense novels, class reunions have been a frequent device used to show the eruption of emotions such as shame, hatred, and guilt within individual characters who, suddenly faced again with their own youth, become aware that they have been unable to cope with their past. In many cases, those who used to be bullied, humiliated, or in some other way mistreated by their teachers or classmates believe that now their chance has come to take revenge on their former torturers. Participants often nostalgically reminisce about their old school days or fondly remember their school pranks. Alumni are quite often concerned about how their lives have turned out when compared with the lives of their former classmates, and will sometimes feel pressured enough to go to great lengths to concoct stories about their fruitful careers, personal accomplishments, and relationships with others.

Another staple of this kind of fiction is former classmates taking up with their old flames again, either because they have changed to their advantage and developed into an admirable adult or precisely for the opposite reason—because they have not changed at all in a fleeting world.

Examples of films revolving around class reunions include:

• Falling in Love Again (1980)
• National Lampoon's Class Reunion (1982)
• The Big Chill (1983)
• Peggy Sue Got Married (1986)
• Kenneth Branagh's Peter's Friends (1992)
• Beautiful Girls (1996)

• George Armitage's Grosse Pointe Blank (1997)
• Romy and Michele's High School Reunion (1997)
• Since You've Been Gone (1998)
• 10 years (2011)
• American Reunion (2012)
• Back in the Day (2014)

Examples of fiction, revolving around class reunions, include:

• Tim O'Brien's July, July (2002)

• Ben Elton's Past Mortem (2004)
• Paul Reizin's Fiends Reunited (2004)
• Simone van der Vlugt's De reünie (2004)

Examples of TV shows loosely based on class reunions, include:

• The Class of '62-episode of the Sitcom Only Fools and Horses (1991)
• Mother and Child Reunion-episode of the teen drama Degrassi: The Next Generation (2001)
• GCB (2012)

See also

• School and university in literature