It's initiation season again.

While first-year students may wonder why that half-naked guy in a wig was singing a Judy Garland medley in the Union yesterday, more seasoned Harvardians know such an event merely marks the annual rites of final clubs initiation week.

Prospective members, called punches, of Harvard's nine final clubs traditionally go through highly ritualized initiations before they are offered full membership in the clubs.

While initiation rites differ from club to club, several require punches to perform stunts ranging from carrying a keg of beer to class to running in circles while screaming.

The Owl Club's initiation, which started yesterday and will last through the end of this week, is one of the most public.

Its punches--some in brightly-colored outfits and wigs, some in little more than briefs and goose bumps--descended upon lectures and demanded attention throughout campus Tuesday.

"One kid came in in boxers and gave a rose to Professor [Mary T.] O'Rourke, saying that it was from her fans," said Abbas A. Hyderi '95-'96 of her Anthropology 136, "Diet, Nutrition and Human Growth" Tuesday lecture. "Then guys dressed in females' tennis clothes, one of them with a racquet, walked to the end of the classroom and back."

Other punches aspired to higher goals and larger classes.

"My eye caught these guys in Justice [Moral Reasoning 22]," said Wayne G. Marshall '98. "One was wearing a tight pink tank top with leopard print and spandex, and the other one was wearing a tank top too."

"With about fifteen minutes left, they got up and one of them picked his friend up, put him on his shoulders and left," Marshall said.

"Everybody in the class started laughing and [Professor Michael J.] Sandel got all self-conscious," said Justice student Charles K. Everett '98.

Everett was privileged enough to enjoy punches' pranks in more than one class.

"In Gen Ed 105, the guy showed up in tighty-whities and a T-shirt and screamed "Dr. Coles, we love you. Please don't leave," Everett said.

The pranks extended beyond the classroom to Harvard Yard yesterday.

"A bunch of guys in front of Widener were singing something from 'The Wizard of Oz,'--'Over the Rainbow,' I think," said Rebecca Edwards '98. "And in the Union right after twelve, there was a person in long-johns yodeling."