Graduation Ceremonies and Traditions Explained

The night before commencement, a senior at QISS asked her mother a question that stopped the whole family cold: “Do you think Grandpa in Chengdu will understand what’s happening tomorrow?” Her grandfather had never attended a US-style graduation. He had seen Chinese university ceremonies, banquet-style, formal, brief. What he was about to watch, a processional in academic robes, a turning of the tassel, a diploma read aloud in English, would be new.

Her question is one we hear often. Graduation ceremonies and traditions carry centuries of meaning inside a two-hour afternoon, and families arrive at that afternoon from many school systems and countries. This guide walks through where those customs come from, what each symbol means, and what our own commencement day looks like on our Laoshan campus.

Why Graduation Ceremonies Still Matter

Anthropologist Arnold van Gennep called ceremonies like this “rites of passage.” He described three stages: separation from an old identity, a period of transition, and incorporation into a new community. A graduation compresses all three into a single afternoon. Students walk in as candidates. They walk out as graduates. The graduation rite of passage is the same whether it happens in Boston or Beijing.

The public nature of the moment matters for adolescents in particular. Recognition in front of family, teachers, and peers reinforces identity, belonging, and self-efficacy, three of the core competencies mapped in CASEL’s framework for social-emotional learning. This is not decoration. It is developmental work.

Our families arrive at this moment from many places. Some have moved through four countries with their child. Some are the first in their family to send a student to university abroad. Some are grandparents attending their first Western-style ceremony. The event has to hold all of them.

A Brief History: From Medieval Robes to Modern Stages

The graduation cap and gown history stretches back to 11th and 12th-century European universities. Robes worn on graduation day began as everyday clothing for clerics at Oxford, Cambridge, and Bologna, the earliest universities founded during the medieval era as religious institutions. Scholars wore long robes to stay warm in unheated stone halls. The uniform stuck.

When American public high schools expanded in the late 19th century, they borrowed the ceremony wholesale from colleges. In 1895, the American Intercollegiate Code standardised the colours of hoods, the shape of sleeves, and the fabric of gowns across US institutions. That code still shapes what you will see on our stage today, and it is the reason high school graduation traditions in the US so closely mirror collegiate ones.

International schools inherited these customs through the American, British, and international curriculum families they belong to. Our ceremony is recognisably American in structure, with elements adapted for the multilingual, multicultural community we serve.

Robes, Hoods, and What the Colours Mean

With academic regalia explained by the 1895 code, the colour of a hood’s lining tells you the graduate’s field. Science hoods are golden yellow. Arts are white. Education is light blue. At the high school level, graduates wear plain gowns and the colours appear instead on cords and stoles.

The Mortarboard Cap: Origins and Symbolism

The flat square cap, called a mortarboard because it resembles a bricklayer’s tool, dates to 14th-century European universities. It signalled the wearer as a “master” of a craft. Today it signals the same thing: mastery of a body of work.

How Latin Honours Crossed the Atlantic

The phrases cum laude, magna cum laude, and summa cum laude come from medieval Latin university records. Harvard began printing them on diplomas in 1869. Today they appear on transcripts and honour cords at ceremonies worldwide, including our own recognition of AP scholars and academic distinction.

The Symbols Inside a Ceremony: What Each Tradition Represents

Every element on stage means something. The commencement ceremony meaning is built from these smaller symbols, and parents who understand them follow the event more closely and feel less like tourists at their own child’s graduation.

Turning the Tassel

The turning of the tassel tradition is one of the most recognised symbols in American commencement. Before the diploma is conferred, graduates wear the tassel on the right side of the cap. When the head of school announces the class as graduated, students move the tassel to the left. That small gesture is the actual moment of transformation. Everything before it is preparation. Everything after it is a new identity.

Honor Cords and What They Signal to Universities

Cords and stoles worn over the gown mark specific achievements. Gold cords typically indicate academic honours. Coloured stoles can recognise service, leadership, or language study. Admissions officers reading a transcript often ask about these markers because they show sustained commitment, not just a final grade.

Our graduates earn recognition through what AP courses in China can look like at their best, where our students average a score of 4 across roughly 100 AP courses in China sat each year on campus. That number carries weight at universities across the US, UK, Canada, and Australia.

The Commencement Address: Who Speaks and Why

The word “commencement” means beginning, not ending. That is the whole point of the speech. A valedictorian, a head of school, or an invited guest addresses the class about what comes next. Elgar’s Pomp and Circumstance March No. 1, composed in 1901 and first played at a Yale graduation in 1905, is the processional that opens most ceremonies. You will hear it as our students enter.

What a QISS Graduation Day Actually Looks Like

An international school graduation on our campus takes place in the 409-seat auditorium at the centre of our 48, 000 m² Laoshan site. Families arrive early. Grandparents from other cities, siblings still in Lower School, teachers from Grade 2 who taught our seniors when they were seven, all find seats in the same room.

Because we hold dual accreditation from WASC and CIS, the diploma we confer carries recognition that university admissions offices outside China take seriously, which matters at the exact moment a family is deciding whether to walk across that stage or transfer somewhere else first.

The Processional and Venue

Graduates enter in pairs to Pomp and Circumstance. Family sections are marked in advance. Younger siblings are welcome. The atmosphere is formal but not cold. We want a seven-year-old Lower School Shark to watch her Grade 12 buddy cross the stage and picture herself there one day.

Diploma Conferral and Academic Honours

Each graduate is called by name. The head of school confers the diploma. AP Scholars, National Honor Society members, and students recognised for service and leadership wear their earned cords and stoles. Achievements from our AP and SAT test center are read aloud, with an average SAT of 1300 across the class.

Senior Speeches and Mindful Hearts Reflections

Student speakers draw on the Leader in Me program at QISS, Stephen Covey’s framework for youth leadership, which shapes how our seniors reflect on their years here. Speeches tend to name teachers, name moments, and name growth. They are specific because we teach students to think specifically.

“Leading with a Mindful Heart is not a slogan we retire at graduation. It travels with our students.”

Then comes the Shark sendoff. The Shark identity is introduced in Early Childhood and reinforced through house events, athletics, and service projects across every division, so by Grade 12 it names a decade of belonging. Once a Shark, always a Shark. It closes the ceremony and opens the alumni chapter in the same breath.

Graduation Traditions Around the World: How Cultures Celebrate

British convocations tend to be brief, Latin-inflected, and heavier on academic procession than on speeches. American commencements lean into oratory and student voice. Chinese university ceremonies are shorter, often followed by a family banquet where grandparents present hongbao (red envelopes) and gold jewellery in some regions. Graduation traditions around the world share the same core symbols but arrange them differently.

International schools blend these traditions. Our program is printed as a bilingual English-Chinese booklet, and processional music sometimes includes a Chinese folk arrangement such as Mo Li Hua (Jasmine Flower) chosen by the graduating class alongside Elgar. Bilingual speeches are common, and multilingual welcomes at the start of the ceremony acknowledge every family in the room. A grandparent visiting from Chengdu, or Seoul, or Frankfurt, finds something familiar.

Hybrid formats emerged during 2020 and 2021, when many international schools livestreamed ceremonies for families who could not travel. Most schools have returned to fully in-person events, but the livestream option has persisted for grandparents and extended family abroad. We continue to offer this at QISS.

Common Questions Parents Ask About Graduation

Knowing what to expect at a graduation ceremony reduces anxiety and lets families be fully present for the milestone. The questions below are the ones we hear most often from our senior families.

What should a parent wear to graduation?

Business or smart-casual attire is the norm at our ceremony. Think of what you would wear to a wedding luncheon, not a black-tie dinner. Comfortable shoes matter because photographs happen outside on the campus grounds afterwards. Weather in Laoshan in early summer is warm; lightweight fabrics work well.

What should I say during a graduation ceremony?

If you are giving a toast at a family dinner or writing a card, keep it specific. Name one moment from your child’s school years that made you proud. Avoid generic congratulations. Graduates remember the sentence that named something only their family could have known.

What is the proper amount for a graduation gift?

There is no universal figure, and it varies widely by culture and family relationship. Many families choose a meaningful object over cash: a watch, a pen, a book inscribed by a parent. In Chinese family traditions, hongbao amounts often reflect a lucky number ending in 8. Follow your own family’s customs.

When do photos happen?

Formal photos are taken before the ceremony in academic dress. Family photos happen immediately after, on the auditorium steps and around the campus. Plan for 45 to 60 minutes of photography after the diplomas are conferred. Some families also host a private college acceptance ceremony at home earlier in the spring, when university offers first arrive.

How is the graduation theme chosen?

Each senior class selects its own theme in the spring semester, working with faculty advisors. The theme shapes the programme design and often appears in the valedictorian’s address. For 2026, our seniors are developing their theme now, drawing on the holistic wellbeing through Mindful Hearts philosophy that has shaped their years with us.

Can younger siblings attend?

Yes, and most families bring them. Our auditorium seats full families comfortably, and the ceremony is planned with that in mind: it runs at a pace young children can sit through, with a natural break for photos afterwards where restless siblings can move around. If you have a toddler who may need to step out partway through, sitting near an aisle makes that easy without disrupting other families. There is no separate childcare during the ceremony itself, so plan for someone to be ready to take a younger child out if needed.

Choosing a School Where Graduation Means Something

A diploma is only as strong as the institution behind it. Graduation ceremonies and traditions gain their weight from the years of teaching, mentoring, and community that precede them. As members of EARCOS and ACAMIS, we participate in the regional networks that set standards for international school education across Asia, alongside our WASC and CIS accreditation.

When you evaluate any international school, the same questions that help families compare international schools in China apply here too:

• Is the school accredited by a recognised body such as WASC or CIS, and does that accreditation cover K-12?
• What percentage of graduates over the last five years received university offers, and to which institutions?
• How does college counseling begin, and at what grade level?
• What does the school teach about character and wellbeing, not just academic content?

Guidance from NACAC reminds families that university admissions officers read transcripts alongside school profiles. A profile from an accredited, well-established school carries more weight. Our graduates benefit from that recognition through our college counseling and university placement support from Grade 9 onward.

The weight of a graduation day comes from the years before it. Twenty-five years of operation. A 3:1 student-teacher ratio. Teachers who know families by name across siblings and years. That is what makes the tassel turn mean something.

If your family is considering an international school in Qingdao, we would be glad to welcome you to campus. Come for a tour, meet Mr. David Lindberg and our admissions team, or write to admissions@qiss.org.cn to arrange a visit. You can also apply to join our community when you are ready. We will show you the auditorium where our seniors will walk this June, and the classrooms where the students who will walk in 2035 are learning to read.