When I first told Michael that I was going to wear a cap and gown, he burst out into laughter. At first, I was a little disturbed because it was the whole idea of graduation and what is graduation without a cap and gown? Looking back at the photos.. and putting on the silly square hat for the third time, I realized, it is a really silly cap and gown.. and I DO LOOK RIDICULOUS. Then it got me thinking.. where the HECK did they come up with this idea of a SQUARE hat? I mean we are suppose to be educated people now.. and we are going out in public in this silly square hat? WHY?
It seems like a silly thing to ponder but it really started to bug me. Enough for me to look up the history of the "cap" or "mortarboard" (for its resemblence to a brick layers mortarboard.. yes I'm wearing a mortarboard on my head. I'm so smart, I couldn't find anything else to put on my head ). It is believed that the shape of the cap comes from the roman catholic clergy hat Biretta.
The hat was then adapted and turned into the Bishop Andrewes Cap
It's said that later, those who were of intellectual properties (scholars, artists, student humanists) wore a red berretta type cap to differentiate themselves from others. There are also rumors that the square shape takes itself from Islamic roots where students wore a cap with the koran on the top of the cap, lending to the shape that we see today.
Traditionally, the tassel on the cap designated what major you were graduating from. Unfortunately, mine is black which means.. well nothing. Typically, schools have students wear tassels in accordance to the school colors rather than their majors.
whatever reason it is that we have to wear this silly square cap on our head ( we are suppose to be more intelligent after all that education.. why would we wear this cumbersome square cap in which no one can ever tell which side is the front and which side is the back??) It does make the day a little more special. I mean how often do you WANT to wear a ridiculous looking square hat on your head?
