As an institution Smith College has many traditions, some with history since its inception. One of the earliest special days celebrated at Smith College was Ivy Day. Still celebrated, Ivy Day is a day in which departing seniors plant ivy cuts on the Smith grounds, symbolizing their seed of knowledge, in hopes that it will flourish. Today, cuts are taken from vines around campus and given to first-year students in anticipation of their own Ivy Day celebration.

Many of those traditions include Special Day celebrations for students, staff, faculty, and parents. Included in the Special Days boxes are the Father's Day folders containing programs, POPS! concert programs, photographs, letters, and newspaper clippings. The change from Father's Weekend to Parent's Weekend and then Family Weekend is documented with the information contained in these folders.

Halloween, Thanksgiving, Easter, Float Night are special days included within the folders. And the repertoire of special days continues to grow as Smith College adds new special day traditions to its old ones: Celebration of Sisterhood and Otelia Cromwell Day. Each celebration seeks to acknowledge and diversify, celebrating what is present and what is to come. Smith College, having a history of celebrating, embracing, renewing and creating traditions, will carry several of them into the future and create several more.