My first voyage ‘round the world, part 15

As the weather was turning really nasty and the ocean getting rougher, we happened to cross the equator right in time for our summer solstice that would soon become, for the same amount of daylight, our winter one. 

A hard act to follow, right? 

Like other liners, the Galileo Galilei marked that day by organizing a line-crossing ceremony, which was meant to be an initiation rite to commemorates a person's first crossing of the Equator. 

The tradition may have originated with ceremonies created as a test for seasoned sailors to ensure their new shipmates were capable of handling long rough times at sea. 

These Equator-crossing events featured costumed characters meant to show that the hierarchy on board was momentarily overthrown, with the Captain losing his authority in favor of a grotesquely disguised individual playing Neptune’s role, while the rest of the official assembly was conducting games that often looked like hazing...

This kind of diversion gave all passengers the alibi of celebrating something en route to Australia, and most importantly, a useful way to kill an otherwise endless amount of time in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean. 

We both leaned over a bit, managed to cross the equator line without messing our hair and were rewarded with a nice certificate!