STUDENTERHUE: Graduation hat
Cap with a black, glossy brim and a white, flat canvas brim with a coloured felt brim and emblem, worn as a sign that you have graduated from an upper secondary school.
If you’ve ever been to Denmark in late June, beginning of July, you might think the circus has arrived in town. Trucks full of people hanging out the edges, colourful banners flapping in the wind, music and whistles competing to be the loudest, honking and drunken dancing (because that’s what they do a whole day or two—drink). Yes, it looks and sounds like a mad spectacle, but actually, this is just the Danish high school graduates celebrating their newfound freedom from the education system, wearing their bright white graduation hats—but perhaps they’re not that white anymore.
In Denmark, when we graduate high school, it’s tradition to be given a “studenterhue” (graduation hat) after one’s last exam by a particular and selected person—a grandparent, parent, sibling, or close friend. It’s a symbol of freedom for the young Danes, but initially, it showed that you had the resources to sit the high school exam. Back then, it was a status symbol; now, it’s a proudly worn headwear becoming a piece of art as the graduation time (which usually runs for some weeks) moves on.
To the hat and the “studentervognskørsel” (graduation truck driving) belong some game rules, or quests if you will. If you do this, you can cut this in your hat, if you do that, you can cut that in your hat, and every year, as new graduates enter the post-school life, it’s a competition to have the most worn out, cutted, and used hat. We pay hundreds to get a respectable, glossy, and presentable hat, only to destroy it a few days later. But so are the rules.
And speaking of rules, let me tell you some of the stupid (to some) or exciting (to others) things we must do to earn a widely accepted and praised cut in the hat.
If you drink 24 beers in 24 hours, you will get a square, and if you, on the same day, get to see the sunrise, you can cut a triangle on top to make a house.
You can cut a wave if you skinny dip with only the hat as swimwear.
If you run around a field, again only with the hat as garment, you can get a straw symbol.
These are only a few of many, some more extreme than others.
Having studied abroad and being the only graduate from my high school to wear our famous hats, I wondered a little about this phenomenon and how peculiar it objectively is. Because who in their right mind would put an entire class of ecstatic, euphoric, and not least drunk young people on an open truck, music blasting so loud you can barely hear what you think, driving around the city, to celebrate their having finished high school?
If this tradition were presented today as a way of celebrating the end of three years of hard work, someone would think twice before accepting. But I believe these traditions continue to have their yearly ceremonies and festivities as a way of letting out the stress and tension from the high school years and to welcome the freedom many Danish high school graduates now have in store: the gap year. Or, more accurately, gap yearS. So, despite the absurdity of the hat, the truck, and the traditions, it somehow makes sense—at least to Danes.
After all, we still celebrate like this today and welcome these few long-anticipated weeks with open arms, unbelievable thrill, and beautiful (?) polished hats.
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