Graduation Ceremony 卒業式

My husband and I attended our children’s graduation ceremony on Friday and Saturday. Our twin children chose different university three years ago and luckily the graduation ceremony was held on a different day. (Most of NZ bachelor’s degrees finish in three years.)

Friday afternoon was our son’s Graduation. The ceremony was due in the afternoon but in the mooring there was an “academic procession”. It is a traditional ceremony in which university graduates march together wearing academic robes. The procession was lead by a group of Scottish bagpipe band. Even the busiest main street traffic was stopped for this march for a while. It was almost equally moving to see the march to actual ceremony. Along the both sides of the street, huge number of people were watching, taking photos or videos, waving and cheering to the students.

In the afternoon, science department graduation was held. It was a huge one with so many people. On the main stage, there was a big screen so we could see each student when their names were called, shaking hands with the Chancellor and being capped. From that moment, they are allowed to wear the black academic cap with a tassel attached. The speech (only one) from one of the professors was full of fun and moving at the same time. As there are so many students, it took long time to finish this ceremony but it was very good.

The next morning, we flew to our daughter’s city in the earliest plane. Our daughter was waiting for us at the airport. To our surprise our suitcase didn’t arrive. It got left behind by the airline’s mistake. So we had to do some paperwork first before we start our busy day. Anyway after this unexpected delay at the airport, we got to the university. This is the oldest university in NZ. It was about 10 degrees colder than where we left that morning. Our son who graduated the day before brought his university’s cloak so we took a lot of photos there, both our daughter and son wearing the cloak.

Then we went to the academic procession here, too. There was a big difference in atmosphere in this procession. In Auckland the procession was done only by graduating students and all the rest of people were watching from both sides of the road but in our daughter’s university procession, it was more relaxed and family and friends were walking together with the students. It was more casual and warm.

The ceremony was going to be held in the afternoon so we had time to go to a nice spot called St.Clair and we took more photos by the beach and had lunch. It was time to go to the ceremony at the town hall. It had a huge pipe organ in the centre of this old hall. Here again, the ceremony was a little less formal but it was very good, too. Each name was called and capped by the Chancellor. Our daughter was the only Japanese name amongst so many students. (There was one another Japanese graduate list in our son’s ceremony.) The end of the ceremony was same with both two university’s. It was national anthem sung first in Maori then in English.

Since our children were born, 21 years have passed so quickly but this weekend was one of the most memorable event for our family.

夫と二人で子供達の卒業式に行ってきた。双子の子達は、3年前（NZの学部はたいてい3年）に別々の大学へ入学したが、幸い卒業式は別の日だった。
金曜日の午後が、息子の卒業式。午前中に「アカデミックプロセッション」というものがある。それは、卒業生がガウンを着て行進する伝統的な行事だ。先頭はバグパイプの楽団。この行進のために、メインストリートは一時交通遮断された。卒業式と同じくらいに感動的な行進だった。道の両側から非常に大勢の家族、友人たちが、写真やビデオを撮ったり、手を振ったり大声で呼びかけたりしていた。

午後が、理学部の卒業式。とても大規模だった。メインステージには大きいスクリーンがあり、名前が呼ばれ、学長と握手し、帽子を被らせる動作を学長がする様子を遠くからでも見ることができた。その瞬間から、卒業する生徒は帽子を被る資格がある。式でのスピーチは一つのみ。教授の一人からで、非常にユーモラスかつ感動的なものだった。人数が多いので式は時間がかかったけれど、とても良かった。

翌朝は、一番早い飛行機で娘のところへ。娘は空港で待ってくれていた。しかしスーツケースが届かなかった。何と飛行機会社の手違いで積まれなかったらしい。そんなことで忙しいのに時間が取られてしまったが、やっと大学まで行けた。ここは国で一番古い大学。朝出発したところより温度は十度低かった。息子は前日に卒業式だったが、卒業ガウンはまだ借りていたので、二人揃った写真を撮ることができた。

それからここでも「アカデミックプロセッション」を見た。前日とは雰囲気がかなり違っていた。オークランド大学では卒業生だけが行進していて、それ以外は道から見るようになっていたが、娘の大学ではもっとリラックスした感じで、家族や友人が一緒にぞろぞろ歩いていた。それもカジュアルで暖かい感じであった。

卒業式は、午後タウンホールで開かれるので、セントクレアという綺麗な場所に移動し、写真を撮ったり、お昼ご飯を食べたりしていた。式場の古いタウンホールは中央に巨大なパイプオルガンがあり演奏されていた。再びここでも、生徒の名前が一人ずつ呼ばれ、学長から帽子を被される。娘はたった一人日本人の名前のようだった。（前日息子の大学では他にあと一人日本人がいた）両方の卒業式も最後は同じで、国歌斉唱。初めはマオリ語、次に英語で歌われる。

子供達が生まれて、21年間はあっという間だったが、この週末はその中でも忘れられないものとなった。