Graduation Traditions
It’s that time of year. High school seniors across the nation are gearing up for one last-ditch summer school session. But there are also other seniors, ones who will not be going to summer school one last time, but will instead be taking part in one of mom and dad’s favorite cultural traditions…High School Graduation. And not just the high schoolers, but colleges too–and kindergarteners. Graduation, the one day that it’s ok to wear a bath robe in public and put a square funny looking hat on your head, that actually looks like a failed cat-toy, and be proud to do it.
Where did these graduation traditions come from? Why not wear suits and dresses instead of robes? What’s up with the funny looking hat anyway? In this article, we will be examining the graduation traditions of the United States. Most of the graduation traditions in America were brought over by the colonists from the schools in Europe, most notably Oxford and Cambridge.
The Traditions of the Graduation Robe
Back in the day, most medieval institutions of learning were set up to cater to nobles and clergy. All students there were at least some order of clergy, and they were required to wear clerics robes in appropriately dark colors at all times. Kind of like in Harry Potter’s world. Many European Universities picked up these traditions. Even today, in many older universities the scholarly robes were worn at all times.
Traditionally, different colored garments were intended for different degrees or areas of study, such as green for medical studies, white for humanities, purple for legal studies, etc. Many institutions still follow the color-coded graduation robe traditions. However, it is common, especially in high schools now, to find the graduation robes done in school colors, one of the colors for the young men and one for the ladies.
The Graduation Cap Traditions
The traditions involving the graduation cap, or ‘mortarboard’ also probably comes from the dressing habits of the clergy, who wore similar hats called birettas. Originally, these special hats were reserved only for students who had completed their masters degrees. Eventually it found itself starting to be worn by the bachelors and undergraduates, and finally finding its way down to the high schools. Like with the gowns, the tassel colors were originally intended to indicated the area of study, but are often today done in the school colors.
The Graduation Diploma
Yes, the guest of honor, the piece of paper that everyone came to see. The diploma is a written document to certify the graduation, that the holder did pass their course of study and attain a degree. Originally written on sheepskin and rolled up, it was later written on parchment and today is often bound in leather, though in movies and media it is often still displayed as a scroll.
Graduation Commencement Speech
Finally, the tradition of graduation speech-making by a guest speaker, teacher, or student probably comes once again from the religious traditions of the European universities. It originally started out as a prayer and blessing, and over the years, and schools moving to more secular paths, traditions held to make a speech. Over the years different people made commencement speeches, including one of the students, a successful alumnus, and now can even include celebrities with no ties to the school.
If your school or culture has different graduation traditions, we would love to hear what traditions you have. Drop us a line and let us know how you celebrate graduation where you are. Leave your graduation traditions in the comments to share.
