St. Andrews Day

Yesterday(November 30th) was St. Andrews day in Scotland. It is a really big deal. There is no equivalent to it in the US. There are lots of celebrations and special events all day long and it is a national bank holiday. He is the patron saint of Scotland, among a few other countries. In St. Andrews we really like this day, for obvious reasons. I went to the graduation ceremony today (for the first semester graduates). 

The maces being presented to the President of the University.

I love the maces. 2 of them are from the medieval times.

My view. I was not about to move though, considering I sneaked in, since I did not have a ticket. There were 2 ladies that did not have tickets and the guy let them in angrily, and I pretended to be with them once they were going in. The student were already in when I got there, but the procession of academia was not.

Going to get their diplomas. They all dressed the same. Guys= black suit/tuxedo with white bow-tie and girls with black pants or skirt and white blouse.

To graduate, your name is called, you walk to this part of the stage, hang your hood to the guy with his back to the camera, get down on your knees, the President says something in Latin, tapes a piece of cloth on your head, this guy puts on your hood, you get up head bow to the president and walk off stage.

The undergrad hoods are pink with white lining.

You could also wear the traditional costume of your home country. There were lots of kilts!

One of the 3 people that read the names of the graduates. I think they were the heads of the schools where the people graduated from: chemistry, medicine, etc.

The thing that touches your head had something to do with a piece of old trousers. Then the cloth exactly touches your head is the exact time of graduation. For about 1/3 of the graduates (the first in each grouping, undergrad or grad or PhD and what subject) the Latin was the whole phase, something about giving a degree to you. The rest of the gradates got the shortened version, translated as "and upon you."

I think backstage they got their actual diploma and something like a year book, just of their class I assume. They had to wait until in-between names to go back to their seats.

This kid cried for a while and the mom, the one in the pink headscarf,  would not leave becasue I think her husband was about to graduate. At one point the woman in the red coat (did not know mom or son) and took him to the lady holding him now that was like an usher at the door. It was weird and accomplish nothing. In fact, when she took the kid, he cried more.

After all the graduates were called the St. Salvator's choir sung 2 short songs.

I wonder if this guy is related to the founder of basketball?!?!

The principle then spoke, mostly in Latin.

I now see why St. Andrews is so small, there would be no more space for graduations.

There were 8 new professors introduced today. They all can in and bowed to the President and principle. They promised to teach to the best of their abilities and were given books- one of them got a much thicker book then the others. There were also 2 of them that were Wardlaw Professors- apparently it is a big deal in academia.

This guy, something to do with the School of Chemistry gave the Graduation speech. I thought it was terrible. It was about economic problems and the raise in tuition and how they should do good things and then tell people they went to St. Andrews. They should help the University out.

Recollecting the maces. I think usually there are only 2 of them that are used. Graduation must be a very special occasion. The mace guy on the far left is the guy that holds the St. Andrews mace. He is usually in all the ceremony events. He was also the guy that was doing the hoodings- he must be the head guy with all the experience.

The academic procession out.

These two were the last, the lady started clapping and then everyone did. The new graduates joined in the academic possession.

Guys in the blue hoods- I think they were PhD people.

Metodi Metodiew lived in my flat last year. We got a piece of his mail in the first few weeks and could not believe that that was someones name.

The University flag flying today. Was it because of graduation or St. Andrews Day?

The only way that was not blocked was this path to the Quad with the parents. Then we saw this procession.

We are in Scotland after all.

The procession stopped when the teachers got to the chapel. Then the students talked with each other or found their families. This guy is holding the yearbook thing, it has a picture of Wills and Kate on it when they kicked off the 3 year celebration of our 600th anniversary. (It is 3 years becasue no one knows at what point in those first 3 years was the proper/official start of the Uni.)

Picture taken of the new professors. Then some of the professors went into the building to the left. I was not quite sure if this was the end of the ceremony.

This graduation had the most security I have ever seen at a graduation!

I am really glad I stayed for the whole thing. It was only an hour and a half, then again half the people graduating were not there, and just had their names read and then the President said the whole Latin phase, about 18 words for that group of "in adsentia"

I also played cricket today. We worked on fielding and bowling. I hit the wicket like 5 times! Everyone said I am a great bowling and are jealous of my quick-to-be-picked-up bowling skills. And, I am pretty good at fielding too, even though my partner was not and the ball, that is like wood, hit me in the knee twice. I had a blast with my teammates and wish I could play in a proper cricket match, but they are in the spring.

P.S. Matty, I thought about you when we were fielding the ball, rolling on the ground, with one hand and throw it to our partner. We did that on Daisy Hill. I remember I said I hated that SportsCenter always had those plays multiple times in their top 10 plays.