the.com/commencement
a ceremony named for beginnings that everyone treats as an ending.
means A formal ceremony marking the completion of a course of study, especially the graduation event where degrees are conferred.
from From Latin com- (an intensifying prefix) plus initiare, "to begin," via the Old French comencier, "to start." English borrowed it in the Middle Ages, and academic use carries the old logic plainly: graduates aren't ending school so much as being formally initiated into the wider world — commencing their lives as scholars. The word kept faith with its root even as the people wearing the gowns quietly decided otherwise.
- latin root
- From commencer, to begin, not to finish
- the hat toss
- Naval Academy started it; tossing freed midshipmen forever
- gown color
- Robe shades secretly encode your exact degree
- speech length
- Studies show nobody remembers a single word
- pomp tune
- Same Elgar march played at millions of graduations
for instance
harvard commencement 2023 — bill gates delivered the address to 6,000+ graduates on may 25, 2023