Letter from the Pastor
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June 9, 2024Last week was busy around our school. We had the “Moving Up” ceremony for the Pre-K 3, and Pre-K 4 classes, the Kindergarten graduation, and then our 8th graders graduated on the beautiful feast of the Sacred Heart last Friday evening.
Each ceremony is priceless, especially the little ones, the “graduates” are so serious! They want to sing and recite what they memorized so perfectly. To see the joy on the grandparents’ and parents’ faces, and the smiles on the Principal and the teachers’ faces, (even though I think they might be smiling for other reasons) is a wonderful sight. I mention to the pre-K 4 parents that their little ones will be the Class of ‘41 (2041) from college!
On each level, the formality of the graduation ceremony is greater. Graduation ceremonies are very important and should not be missed.
There are important key moments in our lives such as birthdays, weddings and personal milestones that are given ceremonies to celebrate. The fact that these rituals occur without exception in all cultures highlights their importance. These moments are called “rites of passage.” Rites of passage do not merely celebrate the transition to a new stage in life – they actively create the new state in life.
The more significant the moment, the more pomp and ceremony is required. Graduating from kindergarten or 8th grade, high school and definitely college can be one of the most important transitions in a person’s life. Graduation ceremonies embody not only the importance of education and student achievements, but also the graduates’ bonds to their school as alma mater (a sweet mother).
Part of the graduation ceremony is the wearing of the cap and gown. Did you know what the graduates wear hearkens back to medieval customs? The Catholic Church, particularly the Benedictines, established the first universities during the Middle Ages. The Benedictines were the first scholars and teachers, and then came the Dominicans, Franciscans and finally the Jesuits. The monks wore heavy woolen black flowing robes with long sleeves and hoods, their religious habit. The priests wore their cassocks and their hat known as a biretta, a three cornered hat. Those of a certain age may remember the parish priest always wearing their biretta with a pom-pom in the middle-the French style. Cardinal Dolan still wears a biretta, but in the Roman style, without the pom-pom. Over time, the mortarboard evolved from the biretta.
In college and university the ceremonies and dress are more intricate. The rules of dress indicate the degree and the field of study. Bachelor’s degree wears black robes with mortarboards; they receive small hoods, with the proper color of their major study. Masters graduates wear black robes with longer sleeves that can act as pockets, a three-and-a-half-foot hood, and a mortarboard. PhD (doctors) wear robes with velvet running down the front, and rounded sleeves that have three velvet stripes. The hood is four feet long, and while they can wear mortarboards or caps, doctoral recipients wear six-sided caps.
The inside hood is lined with the school colors, with the velvet edge, which ranges in thickness depending on the degree, indicates different fields of study: Theology is scarlet, white signifies the arts, purple is law, green is medicine, orange is engineering, light blue is education, apricot for nursing and gold for sciences, and so on.
So on behalf of your parish family I wish to congratulate all our graduates, on whichever level of education you completed. We share in your joy.
I also wish to congratulate and thank you, the parents.
Graduation day is your day as well.
