The Meaning Behind the Traditional Garb of Graduation

Some people have graduations for every grade in school all the way through high school, some never have a ceremony until college. As for me, it’s not the first time someone in my family has received a degree, but it is the first time one of us has attended a graduation ceremony. With all the importance placed on this event, how many of us really know what the point of the cap, gown, tassel, and sash in the pageantry of graduation ceremonies is all really for?

History

Although this kind of regalia is pretty much only seen at commencement ceremonies nowadays, the 1959 book The History of Caps and Gowns says that early schools founded in the Middle Ages were populated by clerics for teachers and by individuals who had taken at least Minor Orders with a church or monastery as students. Daily garb for those in the business of religion in those days was “a long gown, and a long sleeveless tunic over it, and when the weather was cold, a long, full cloak to which a shoulder-length cape with a hood was attached,” according to this book. When students began attending universities without the intent of becoming priests and such, the tradition continued with the style evolving until sometime in 16th century England when the fashion became somewhat set for the academic realm. Also during this time, significant enough pressure from the fashion-conscious offspring of wealthy families that composed the majority of students at that time gradually changed the rules to allow less formal dress outside of school grounds – and eventually on them as well in some part. In the USA, the Intercollegiate Commission’s 1895 code of dress regulating the cut, style, materials used, and colors was adopted (at least for ceremonies) by about 95% of our universities.

Colors

By major, The History of Caps and Gowns lists the following rules for color – and some of the rationales behind them:

• White – Arts and Letters (taken from the white fur trimming of the Oxford and Cambridge B. A. hoods)
• Black with brunette fur lining – Liberal Arts (it is the nature of black to collect the sight)
• Red – Theology (one of the traditional colors of the church,)
• Royal Purple – Law (a color associated with kings and therefore with their judicial power)
• Brown – Fine Arts
• Orange – Engineering
• Lilac – Dentistry
• Green – Medicine (the color of medicinal herbs)
• Blue (now modified as dark blue) – Philosophy (the color associated with wisdom and truth)
• Golden Yellow – Science (standing for the wealth which scientific research has produced)
• Pink – Music (Oxford pink, it’s tradition)
• Olive – Pharmacy (because it was so close to green)
• Russet (brown) – Forestry (the color of the dress of the ancient English foresters)
• Copper – Economics
• Dark Crimson – Humanities
• Drab – Commerce/business/Accountancy
• Sea Green – Optometry
• Nile Green – Chiropody
• Grey – Veterinary Science
• Lemon – Library Science
• Light Blue – Education
• Silver Grey – Speech (Oratory)
• Salmon – Public Health
• Sage Green – Physical Education
• Maize – Agriculture

Since then, the Academic Costume Code (ACC) for the American Council on Education (ACE) has also added the following:

• Crimson – Journalism
• Apricot – Nursing
• Peacock Blue – Public Administration, including Foreign Service
• Citron – Social Work

Caps

Academic graduation robes were hooded cloaks. Oxford University in the 1400s made a rule that only degree-holding graduates could wear hoods. Everyone else had to wear a scull cap type hat. Eventually, the hoods went out of style, replaced by puffy biretta hats with tufts on top. So puffy and floppy were these hats that people started stuffing them with cardboard for stiffening. When this became the skull cap with the square of cardboard and tassel on top, the mortar board was born.

Some robes/gowns come with both a hood and a cap nowadays.

Tassels & Sashes/Stoles

A matter of fashion, the color of the tassel on one’s mortar board and of the sash one might wear is supposed to match one’s area of study (see colors above). The ACC states that the tassel’s color can also represent school colors, just be black, or represent membership in an honor society.

A tradition that sprang up in just the last century was to wear one’s tassel on the right side, then move it to the left after receiving one’s diploma.

A fuller summary of current regulations by ACE can be found here.

Since my major is Film & Digital Media, one not really covered by the rules herein, and because I’m at a school which thrives on a sense of individualism, I will likely design a custom outfit for commencement – possibly cannibalizing some of the existing traditions to do so.