STUŽKOVÁK – THE SPECIAL CZECH CEREMONY FOR STUDENTS PREPARING TO GRADUATE | 2010-01-07

Being a graduate involves many activities. And these activities are not only studying, studying and studying. Actually, students in their final year at the gymnasium have an opportunity to enjoy many parties and celebrations that only graduates can participate in.

 

The first party that we organised was Stužkovák. In September it seemed that it would be really easy to organise it. We just had to find a restaurant, order dinners and the most important thing – “stužky” (special graduate ribbons). However, the reality was different. It was quite difficult to agree with 16 other people on the colours of the “stužky” and on the class motto that would be printed on them. Finally, on the 19th of October I sent out the order. The colours of 13A became dark red and white and the motto was “My o vlku a Vlček za dveřmi” (A play on words of a common Czech expression, “Talking about the wolf, with the Little Wolf behind the door – the English translation for Class teacher Mr. Vlček just happens to be Little Wolf); the colours of 13B were turquoise and apple green and their motto was “Remember yesterday. Live for today. Dream for tomorrow.” Well, “stužky” were ordered and Barča Malíková and Katka Hájková managed to make a reservation at one pension in Ostrava-Polanka. They took care of everything that needed to be done concering the dinner and refreshments. The costs for the dinner decreased a lot thanks to the money that we raised from “Roll Day” (Thanks to everybody who helped!). But with only 10 days left before the stužkovák, I realised we hadn ’ t o r d e r e d t h e “ p a s o v a cí listiny” (special certificates declaring our passage into the ranks of those preparing to graduate)! Fortunately, in the end, we got everything ready on time.

 

And then came the big evening:
We gathered in the restaurant at about 5:30 pm. We had dinner served in a winter garden. It was really nicely prepared. Mr Vlček and Gitana made a toast and then we could start eating. After a really delicious dinner we went to the club. The special ceremony took place there. Firstly, grade 13A and then 13B students were knighted into “graduatehood”. Ms Dobešová called out each student’s name. The student came to his class teacher and knelt in front of them. The class teacher asked the student to swear to fulfill his duties till graduation and then he was knighted (with a sword) a graduate. After that, the class teacher of the other class gave him the “stužky”, Ms Kotasová gave him the pasovací listina document, and Phil gave him a glass full of champagne. This was the whole ceremony. Afterwards, we had a few activities and games for teachers. First, we watched the slideshow of pictures compiled by Markéta Kubinová. It contained all the pictures that we have taken since summer school in 2006. Then we had our first game for teachers called “Guess Who”. We showed them pictures of students when they were in kindergarten and the teachers had to guess who the child in the picture was. Ms Dobešová won the game with 16 correct answers. Then we had some free time and mingling, we played darts and table football and chatted with the teachers. Finally we had our last game for our teachers. It was a knowledge competition. Teachers got different questions from their fields as well as others. The winner was Mr Vlček, and Ms Mazurová and Ms Kotasová won 2nd and 3rd place. Then we continued mingling. Most people left around 1 am, including the teachers.

 

Even though this evening cost us lots of time and patience, it was definitely worth it. It was nice to spend some time with our teachers and classmates somewhere else besides school. I would like to say a big THANKS to everybody who helped to organise it. Fortunately, there are still a few more parties that we will take part in – Graduation Ball and, unfortunately, the actual graduation itself. So keep your fingers crossed for us! We will definitely need it!

Petra Koblížková, Student 13A

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