Danish Graduation

The school in-between "elementary school" (folkeskole) and University in Denmark is called Gymnasium. Often this is translated to "high school." It is not high school at all. You finish folkeskole when you are about 16 years old, then you can either go to vocational programs or apply to gymnasium. If you want to go to university you have to go to gymnasium. It is more like community college than it is high school and is tailored to your interests, but is a lot of GE. You go to gymnasium for three years and then you graduate. Graduation from gymnasium is the craziest and most amazing thing I have ever seen.

There are a ton of traditions involved. Like, a TON. The most important of which, at least from what I can tell, is the hat. After you finish your last exam you can go and have your hat placed on your head by someone significant in your life. Then you have to wear the hat until your actual graduation. The hats almost resemble hats I would think of for the marines? But they are gorgeous with their names embroidered on the back. On the inside you write your last exam's grade, all your friends bite the rim for good luck, people sign the inside like a yearbook, and there are a lot of other rules about wearing it and head size ranking in the class, etc. After the actual graduation ceremony the different classes each rent a "wagon" that has been decorated by the first year students. They graduates proceed to ride around in these wagons for 12 hours with a DJ going to each of the graduating students' houses. The parents put on a welcoming for the students and they stay for an allotted time (they stayed at our place for 20 minutes) before they pile back in the wagon and go on their way. The graduates tally how many beers they have had on their forearm, the goal being 24. You have to stay up until the sun rises the next morning, and after the last wagon stop at 12:15am the next day I have been told that a lot of skinny dipping happens in the harbor. I am just obsessed with the wagons and the support of the community. The graduates wear the hats everywhere so they are easily recognizable and everyone is constantly congratulating them. The first picture is of the wagon the daughter I'm staying with was in, the rest of random to make sure you know that these things are EVERYWHERE blasting their music.