Overall colors

There are several different types of russ, differing in the colour of the caps and traditional uniforms most students wear during the entire russ period. The uniform's colour usually reflects the student's course of study (see below). However, in some regions such as Stavanger, the colour is determined by the school. Typically in these areas, if the headmaster of the school was a blue russ, the students will also be blue regardless of what they are studying (vocational students will still usually be black russ).^{[citation needed]}

Red (rødruss)

Allmennfag (general studies) (mathematics, physics, biology, history, literature, English, etc); media and communication, art, music, dance and drama; and athletics. This is the most common colour.^{[citation needed]}

Blue (blåruss)

Business administration (økonomi & administrasjon)

Black (svartruss)

Vocational courses, like electronics, carpentry or culinary programs. As Norwegian vocational studies consist of two years of schooling and one or two years of apprenticeship, black russ can choose to celebrate at the end of school, at the end of the apprenticeship, or both. Some red russ choose black in order to stand out, although most red and blue russ do not acknowledge them as real russ.^{[citation needed]} In fact, since most black russ are under 18 years old, they chose to order the red overalls in order to enter party sites where only those over 18 are allowed.^{[citation needed]}

Green (grønnruss)

Agricultural courses, also used by some as an alternative to orange russ.^{[citation needed]}

White (hvitruss)

In some regions, athletics students or healthcare students use white uniforms. Christian russ choosing to celebrate without alcohol sometimes use this colour, but most often wear the same colours as their classmates. Christian russ might form their own groups to have fun together without peer pressure towards drinking alcohol and achieving the knot requirements.^{[citation needed]}

Miscellaneous

Occasionally, children in the last year of kindergarten dress up as "pink russ" (rosaruss), or girls as pink russ and boys as light blue russ. In some places, pupils finishing the last year of middle school (ungdomsskolen) dress up as "orange russ" (oransjeruss) or "green russ" (grønnruss). These celebrations have not become very common.^{[citation needed]}

Knots

The russ knots (Norwegian: russeknuter) on the string of the russ caps are a wide variety of rewards signaling that the student has fulfilled a certain accomplishment during the russ period. They can be simple knots or tokens attached to the string. Lists of assignments and associated knots are publicized each year by russ committees at schools and communities. The knot often consists of an item representing the accomplishment. For instance, passing through the back seat of a car stopping on a red light (inspired by the television advertisement for the sweet Mentos), earns them a piece of wrapping from the sweet. The russ knot list was first introduced in the 1940s.^{[citation needed]}

The knot rules are sometimes criticized because they can involve illegal acts, such as public nudity or public sexual intercourse, outright assault and possibly self-harming actions such as consuming large amounts of alcohol in a short span of time (earning a beer cap or wine cork). Other more benign tasks exist, such as putting a for sale sign on a police car, or spending the night at a teacher's house and making him/her breakfast in the morning, all without being noticed. Counting both national and local lists, there can be hundreds of different tasks that can be performed to gain knots, with huge varieties between districts and individual schools. Due to criticism in media, many of the russ knots are removed and replaced by other knots every year to decrease their impact on the students. Some of the previous knots have been physically dangerous, such as drinking 24 bottles of beer within 24 hours, or placing half a box of snus under one's lip for a certain period of time. This can lead to alcohol poisoning and severe brain damage.^[7]

A few russ knot examples:

• Spending a night in a tree (earns a stick from the tree)
• Eating a Big Mac hamburger in two bites (earns a piece of the wrapping)
• Drinking a bottle of wine in 20 minutes (earns the wine cork)
• Crawling through a supermarket while barking and biting customers' legs (earns a dog biscuit)
• Spending a school day crawling on hands and knees (earns a toy shoe)
• Spending the entire russ period sober (earns a fizzy drink cork)
• Drinking 24 beers in 24 hours (girls) or 12 hours (boys)
• Go for a swim before 1 May
• Ask random people in a mall if they can lend one a condom (earns the condom)
• Stage a false break up with a random 16-year-old in public
• Sit in a roundabout with a sign saying Vi drikker hvis dere tuter! ('We'll have drink if you honk your horn!'), or a variation, En tut = en skål! ('One honk = one drink!')^[8][9]
• Host an aerobic class at the local pub and get at least ten people to join.

It is common for every school to have about 100 knots. If a russ does 50 or 70 of them he or she can choose to do three extra embarrassing or hard knots to become an elite russ.

A few elite russ knot examples:

• Tattoo russ and the year they were russ on their body (For instance "Russ 09" if 2009).
• Make out with 10 people in one night.
• Give more than 1,000 NOK (about £100 and about US$120) to charity.
• Dye their hair in the colour they are russ (black, red or blue).

Vans (russebiler) and buses (russebusser)

In the older days russ often traveled around in an open lorry, either used as-is or with a self-made log cabin added to the cargo area. Today, groups of russ commonly join together to buy a russ van. In eastern Norway, such as the capital Oslo, the posh suburb of Bærum, and other surrounding cities and areas, russ often choose to have a full-scale bus. This phenomenon also happens in the city of Stavanger and its surrounding areas. Russ vans are typically 15- to 20-year-old Volkswagen Caravelles or Chevy Vans. The vehicle is painted in their respective russ colour, either by having it professionally sprayed or with regular wall paint. Decals and other decorations are common.^{[citation needed]} Russ vehicles bought cheap have a reputation for being in terrible technical condition. Inexperienced and intoxicated drivers, and in some cases even highly flammable alcohol spills, have contributed to fatal traffic accidents and fires in these vehicles. The Norwegian police take part in a concerted effort to improve the situation. Russ who acquire a bus are required by law to hire a professional bus driver for the duration of the celebration, while van drivers might be an older sibling, friend, or a russ who chooses to abstain from alcohol.^{[citation needed]}

In the russ vehicle, modern tradition requires a powerful audio equipment inside the vehicle, and on buses also on the roof (the largest systems allowed have 40 speaker boxes which can generate over 60,000 watts. Some buses have had over 60 speaker boxes. Other accessories include sweatshirts and caps with the group's chosen logo and a bus song or slogan. It is also common to have some sort of theme for the interior and name/concept. Many buses have expensive themed interiors, sometimes a bar, and plenty of flat-screen TVs. A party light system is also common in buses.^{[citation needed]}

These buses can be a large financial burden; contributions of up to $30,000 per member have occurred. In some cases, the teenager's parents invest most of the money needed for the buses. However, the average is between $2,000 and $6,000 per member. Including sponsors, the cost of a bus can reach over 2,000,000 NOK. (US$250,000).^{[citation needed]}

While some are willing to spend very high sums of money during the russ festivities, mostly on the van or bus but also on clothes, effects, parties (there are special happenings for russ all over the country) and alcohol, most aim to buy a cheap van together with a group of friends. An old van can be passed on to the next generation of russ several times before it is discarded.^{[citation needed]}

It is customary to spend substantial amounts of time working on the vehicle, finding a concept, refurbishing the inside, painting the outside and applying for funding during the weeks (and sometimes years) before the festivities start. Logos of sponsors are written onto the vehicle together with other decorations. Some undertake major rebuilds of the interior, like building a bar counter or beds within the bus. It is not uncommon to start planning the bus several years before the celebration. Everything in the russ celebration is taken care of by the russ themselves, except the bigger events. These events feature shops selling alcohol and food, international artist performances and most importantly, russekåringen (lit. 'the russ awards'), where busses receive awards for the best theme, interior design, sound system, light system, best live-bus, and the most prestigious: the bus of the year.^{[citation needed]}

Cards (russekort)

Most russ have personalized calling cards featuring their name, photograph, phone number, address, and a short slogan or joke. Often times information such as the phone number or address is swapped with intentionally wrong information to add to the joke/slogan on the card, or to add additional jokes. These cards are swapped with other russ and handed out to children and family members. To many children, collecting russ cards is an important activity during the entire russ period, but especially May, culminating on 17 May.^{[citation needed]}

Newspapers (russeavis)

To finance some of the administrative costs, many high schools create russ newspapers containing fake news, a column written by the russ president, official knot rules for the specific school, and other content, mostly humorous. The most important feature of a russ newspaper, however, is a section featuring every class and student with a photograph and a personalized biography, typically written by friends in a jocular and satirical style. The class may also write a similar entry on their main teacher; the teacher, in turn, writes about their class. The russ newspaper is written and published by the russ board (russens hovedstyre).^{[citation needed]}