Hungry and confused, a steady stream of first-years flooded into Eliot and Kirkland dining halls Friday night, desperately looking for a place to eat after signs tricked them into thinking that Annenberg had closed.

The signs heralding Annenberg’s closing were posted in first-year dorms Friday afternoon, directing would-be diners to Eliot and Kirkland Houses.

“It was a cold and windy night, and I wasn’t thrilled of hiking across Mt. Auburn street to Kirkland,” recalled Jennifer E. Rood ’07, who made the trek. “But, I was excited when we got there because there were balloons on the ceiling.”

Students said their hopes of dinner were shattered, however, when both Eliot and Kirkland Houses closed their dining services to first-years.

“Alas, the balloons were not for us to enjoy. We were turned away by the dining staff,” Rood said.

At approximately 6 p.m—midway into the dinner hours— Zachary M. Gingo, manager of Administrative Operations for Harvard Yard Operations, sent out an e-mail to first-years stating that Annenberg was indeed not closed that night.

But Michael L. Stewart ’05, who said he partcipated in the execution of the prank, said many first-years did not get the e-mail in time.

“I think that we postered for [the prank] late enough in the day that word did not make it around. Most of the freshman were duped,” said Stewart, a Dunster House resident.

Stewart said that a student from Mather House and a first-year also were involved in the prank, although he refused to disclose any names.

There was no malice meant toward the first-years, according to Stewart, and the prank was a part of the Dunster-Mather versus Eliot-Kirkland-Adams House rivalry.

“We needed to let the infidels of Eliot and Kirkland know that their dining halls are not something that only they could eat in. The freshman were very good to us, and they stormed both houses and demonstrated a lot of spirit,” Stewart said. “Certainly for the freshman who were assisting us, they didn’t have to know that they were assisting us.”

Stewart shifted the blame for the prank, saying it reveals that Eliot and Kirkland Houses are the “bad guys” for closing first-years out of their dining halls.

“I feel very sorry for the freshman, but I applaud them,” Stewart said. “We hope that the freshman would want to retaliate against Kirkland and Eliot against this discrimination. They have been the true villains in all of this,” said Stewart.

The prank was planned about a week in advance, according to Stewart, who said the original plan was to send the first-years to Adams House. However, in light of Adams House’s excluding first-years from lunch and dinner, Stewart said that the plan had to be adjusted to other Houses.

But many in Kirkland and Eliot Houses seemed unaware of the prank altogether.

“I don’t think anything too unusual happened. No one told me what happened,” Eliot House Master Lino Pertile said.

“I didn’t even know that there was such a thing,” said Kirkland House Co-Master Verena Conley.

Some students in both Houses agreed that the prank did not accomplish anything.

“There hasn’t been much of a response from the students [in Kirkland],” said Laura C. Settlemyer ’05, social chair of the Eliot House Committee.

For his part, Stewart says that he does not expect any sort of retaliation from Kirkland or Eliot.

“They’re weenies,” he said.

—Staff writer Risheng Xu can be reached at xu4@fas.harvard.edu.