Students Find Friendship With Gieske’s Ram Horn

by Anna Harman

Jeremy Gieske is a junior Biblical Studies Accelerated student at Cedarville University. He chose Cedarville because he loves the community and how invested the faculty and students are in God. 

In 2019, he continued to foster that sense of community that he loves so much. On Homecoming weekend during Gieske’s freshman year, he began a tradition that will remain for the following years he’ll spend here at Cedarville. 

Gieske went to the Ohio Renaissance Fair with his family that weekend. He wanted to get a ram’s horn. 

He said, “It reminded me of ‘Lord of the Rings,’ and I wanted to have one because I thought it was the coolest thing and that I could announce something.” 

He did, in fact, purchase one of these horns. But what would he announce when he blew this ram’s horn? 

He said that the first time he blew the horn, he did it to announce quiet hour in his dorm, Rickard. People didn’t love this tradition. So he decided the next night he would blow the ram’s horn at 10 p.m. in the courtyard. 

This is when he first said the famous saying that he came up with on the spot, “The clock striketh ten. Viva la France.” He does this every single night at 10 p.m. in the Murphy-Rickard courtyard. He then blows the horn as long as possible. Once he’s done, people either disperse or they stick around to talk to friends. 

Gieske and the others in the Murphy-Rickard courtyard

On the second night he blew the horn on campus, he instantaneously thought of the saying, “The clock striketh ten. Viva la France.” He had watched ‘Les Misérables’ that previous summer. And so he attributes the feeling that he was “leading a revolution” with that phrase, and also his stint in acting in high school. 

Gieske said that he’ll ask one of his friends to take over if he can’t be present one night. Between him and his friends, they have never missed a night of blowing the ram’s horn when everyone is on campus. 

But what will happen when he graduates? Gieske said, “Before I graduate, I plan to pass it on to a freshman that year. But they’ll go through a selection process to become the next flamekeeper, which is what I’ve called it. I hope for it to go on for years and years to come.”

Most people think that this tradition is odd, and Gieske admits that it is. He said, “I think it’s become more special over the years. It’s a good excuse for everyone to leave their homework, take a break and hang and talk with friends.” 

Some have even told him that it’s helped them when they were lonely or feeling disconnected from people. 

Cedarville junior majoring in psychology, Callie Steves, said, “I heard about the horn from a friend who took me there when I had been going through something difficult. She was actually part of the bro-sis.”

Gieske hopes that while the horn blowing is meant to be silly, it is always a place where people can be themselves and spend time with the people around them. 

He wants everybody to take away the following advice from him: “Be creative. Find some special place to be or thing to do with people. Be intentional. Let those who know you know you care. Though important, life is more than our work. God created us to be together. And finally, be original. Don’t be afraid to be who God has made you to be. Remember what’s important in our lives. Pursue Him, follow Him, find what’s special in your life.”  

Anna Harman is a sophomore Biblical Studies major and also a reporter for Cedars. She appreciates writing, getting coffee and going to concerts.