BYU Celebrates Oktoberfest with Sober Milktoberfest Party

While October signals the arrival of spooky-themed everything in the United States, in Bavaria it means it's time for the famously beer-soaked Oktoberfest. But for the Mormon students at Brigham Young University, Oktoberfest means chocolate milk.

Mormons, who abstain from alcohol, can’t exactly imbibe in the same types of festivities associated with Germany’s Oktoberfest, so they’ve appropriated the festival and created (wait for it): Milktoberfest. Denied the hoppy, bitter taste of beer by their religious doctrine, but apparently still wanting to take part in an autumnal drinking celebration, students at BYU recently chugged 1,200 bottles of chocolate milk.

According to the Brigham Young website, this year marked the second annual celebration of Milktoberfest on campus. Milktoberfest of course includes chocolate milk, but also ping-pong (not even milk pong, just table tennis). In truth, it's a game that is probably better played sober, anyways. But perhaps undercutting the fun a bit is the fact that the event was sponsored by and largely hosted in the school’s library. Not exactly the place where most would hope to go first for some (truly) good old-fashioned revelry, but alas. There was also reportedly a “meme contest” at this year’s festivities. Last year there was mini golf.

Milktoberfest might seem like it’s all about debauching oneself on chocolate-flavored milk and enjoying a game of ping-pong, but in fact it’s all about getting students to warm up to the library. So said HBU’s library public relations manager, Roger Layton, said the true nature of the event was, “to show people the library’s friendly.” Students at Brigham Young can expect similar vibes from the library’s upcoming take on Valentine’s Day in February: Love Your Library. It’s unclear whether or not this event will include chocolate milk.