<p>While attending my D’s graduation at an LAC, I met a Taiwanese student who said that his parents were surprised at the informality of the weekend. He said the parents were surprised to be taken to concerts, picnics and so on. They asked him when they’d be taken to meet his professors in formal reception settings. It sounded like the customs in Taiwan, at least, are much more formal than what they saw. </p>
<p>Although each college department hosted a reception for majors in that department, I think his parents were looking for something different… </p>
<p>I’m just wondering, out of curiosity and a desire to learn more about the rest of the world: </p>
<p>What are the customs and protocols for university graduation in your home country? Are they different than here in the U.S. of A.?</p>
<p>Swedish highschool graduations are pretty informal, as well. Graduates are expected to dress in all white with special white graduation caps. It is also customary to bring a placard with a picture of the graduate as a baby or very young kid, usually a very informal and humoristic one, with the name and “congratulations!” underneath.</p>
<p>We chose a picture of me, 5, dozing off in a hammock. It did a pretty good job of summing up my highschool years, haha.</p>
<p>I graduated from an American high school, but my parents actually bought a [Swedish</a> graduation cap](<a href=“Blogsome”>Blogsome) for me to wear at the graduation party. :p</p>
<p>In Germany both high school and college graduations are pretty informal. You just get your diploma (the principal or president of the school usually gives a short speech but we don’t wear gowns or the like) and then everyone goes out and gets drunk…</p>
<p>In the Netherlands they apparently do nothing. I will be receiving my piece of paper in the mail, and getting drunk with some friends. I’ll most likely urinate in a canal or two before the night is done.</p>
<p>there’s no formal graduation ceremony for high school students herein India…in fact we don’t even use the term ‘graduation’ for school…it’s only meant for college! around the last day of classes schools occasionally organise a more-or-less informal farewell “party”…that’s in december…and then we give our school’s last exams in january (not all schools follw this)…and then we give our board exams in march…and once we’ve collected our result marksheets in may we’ve officially left school.</p>
<p>“graduating” from school somehow isn’t seen as a very big deal here.</p>
<p>it’s really just a two hour formal cerimony. With the whole speech from the dean/giving out certificates thing. Nothing really special.</p>
<p>graduating high school: pretty much the same except that it’s followed by a sort of nightclub DJ atmosphere and (in my school) a famous local band or singer.</p>
<p>I’m from the Netherlands as well. At my highschool graduation we first had a picture taken of the entire graduating class. After that there was a sort of ceremony, every graduate was called to come on the stage, sign the diploma and there was also a personal speech for everyone, given by a teacher who knew him/her very well. That was nice, the speeches were full of pranks and funny anecdotes! And after that drinks of course. And as for clothing, some people dress very formal, some people very the opposite. </p>
<p>As for college graduation, haven’t been there yet, so I don’t know about that.</p>
<p>University graduations are long and boring. That’s why I haven’t attended any. Mind you I was out of town for two of them… At least there was none high school, the government just sent the diploma by mail 3 months later.</p>
<p>Cambridge graduations are very formal. The entire ceremony is in Latin and includes references to the Christian religious symbols such as the Trinity. A more detailed description may be found [here](<a href=“The ceremony | Cambridge students”>The ceremony | Cambridge students).</p>
<p>To the OP, I’m from Taiwan and, yeah, our graduations tend to be a bit formal and long-winded. Basically everyone sits in a big hall, lots of officials, VIPs and such give speeches, and there’s generally also a award ceremony for kids who graduate top of their class. After reading the above posts, I would definitely say we’re obsessed with graduations. I even graduated from kindergarten this way! :p</p>
<p>Awww, imagine all those 5-year-old fungi at formal ceremonies in Taiwan.</p>
<p>The Swedish placard custom is very sweet. What picture would I use to embarrass my h.s. son next month? Maybe him with mashed potatoes on his face at age 2. I thought I’d run out of ways to embarrass him, but hope springs eternal.</p>
<p>The Netherlands personal speeches is something I enjoyed here recently at a small school graduation. It was wonderful; a teacher who knew the student best spoke about him or her. It was moving and fun. I could see the students were surprised at what their teachers were saying about them, and it showed a lot of love.</p>
<p>Seems like many countries take it all in stride without ceremonies, which doesn’t keep people from getting drunk. </p>
<p>Then there’s Cambridge. Very weighty; thanks for the link. Perhaps that’s who the Americans are imitating with our pomp and ceremony. My S here had a choice between a college diploma in Latin or English, so he ordered Latin. Now he realizes he can’t read the thing. Oh well, next time. </p>
<p>No graduation in France. Seniors get the last week of school off to revise the baccalaureat, they take it the second week of June, and then wait until the beginning of July for the results which are posted in a different school. Then they form two queues to pick up their grades, the laughing, happy one off to college, and the tearful group who will have to repeat senior year. No diploma, no party, and no getting drunk as this takes place at 10 in the morning. All in all, it’s a lousy system, and the lack of a formal ceremony, as a kind of rite of passage has been mentioned as possibly being one of the reasons why so many students don’t seem to realize they’re no longer in HS and fail their Freshman year</p>
<p>We at FIITJEE, India had some sorta show called “Kalrav”. Our juniors entertained us…(you know, dances, songs, plays, games etc)…we made a few jokes, insulted a few (no…MANY) of our proffs (:D) … aaannd, that was it. No beer for us ;)</p>
<p>high school graduation in the philippines is a big deal. mine was 4 hours long. it started at 4pm with a mass after the mass we had a 15 minute break then we went on to the graduation ceremony. we ended about 8:30. there’re speeches, awards, and everyone gets to stand on stage and shakes the hand of the directress of the school while you get your diploma. after everyone gets their diploma the graduating class sings about 3 songs, the last being the school song. afterwards it’s usually dinner with the family.</p>
<p>it’s a real pain in the butt…we had to stay in school for 2 weeks after our finals just to practice for the ceremony. boo.</p>
