Finnish University Ceremonies and PhD Swords
I went to an official Finnish university ceremony today. I found out that, first of all, there is no college graduation ceremony in Finland - you just kind of get your degree and that’s it (although every four years after that there is a “promotion” ceremony). But instead of getting a robe and a hood (like happens in the US), you get a hat (that looks like a velvety top hat - somehow it is a symbol of freedom) and at one of the promotion ceremonies you get a sword (a symbol of the sword of knowledge, I believe). Feel free to correct me, if I am wrong about any of this.
The sword part is pretty cool, huh?
Much better than New Zealand at least, where a man from there said all they get is a bright red floppy hat, that I kind of imagine looks like a wimpy pirate hat. But I guess New Zealand has so much else good going for it, that PhD apparel probably isn’t a big concern of theirs.
The ceremony today was very somber, no smiling really even, and the woman who was translating for me said she thinks the somberness comes from the Finish Lutheran tradition of putting off this life so that you could have a much better after-life. She was funny and told me that she thought most people endured the ceremony for the refreshments, but I think that is typical of most countries 
I wondered if part of the somberness was because you were afraid someone was going to whip out their sword.
Actually, maybe the PhD sword is how the professors keep order in the Finnish classrooms? I should check into that…
It’s not sword that _some_ use, it is a whip.
I’ve had professors who needed neither sword nor whip. It seemed that if they were angered, they might shoot fire from their eyes, but we tried to never find out. Personally, I’d rather have the sword than the hood. The sword makes me think of the Round Table. The hood always makes me think of the klan, although I assume it has earlier religious roots.
Maybe someone should do a dissertation on where all the different graduation ceremonies and symbols originated from, huh?
Actually there is a graduation ceremony at some universities in Finland. For example, University of Helsinki has a promotion of Bachelors, Masters and Ph.Lics and PhDs every month called Publiikki (and this is in addition to the promotion parties every nth year). See also this http://cs.joensuu.fi/~rbednari/blog/index.php/graduation-ceremonies-at-university-of-joensuu
Thanks - that is interesting. But wow - every month! I guess they either don’t do it at all, or they really go all out.