Aug 9th 2022

If you find yourself in Denmark during the last week of June, you'll most likely run into a bunch of teenagers wearing the iconic student cap. These teens have just graduated high school, and for the following week you'll see a sea of white caps everywhere you go. The most traditional ways to celebrate high school graduation is hard to miss. During the last weekend in June, the streets are filled with large, decorated trucks packed with students dancing, celebrating and playing loud music as the graduates stop by each of their classmates' houses for something to eat and drink.

Each year, Danish high school students, in their final six months before exams, come together to look at hats. They try on sizes, look at colors, and place an order for their very own graduation cap. This very Scandinavian tradition is integral to student life. Rather than a yearbook, your cap and a Sharpie are handed around instead. It is something that most graduates look forward to for years, and a symbol of all your hard work.

The students spend up to two weeks celebrating their high school certificates, going to parties and taking the studenterkørsel: a trip around town on a colourfully decorated truck, often emblazoned with innuendo-themed wordplays. The trucks stop at the homes of each class member, where parents provide food and drinks. Paaske describes her studenterkørsel as a “14 hour-long party”. All this is done wearing an essential piece of uniform: the studenterhue or graduation cap.

The original cap, which was black with a white rope band, emerged in the mid-19th century, before male gymnasium (high school or upper secondary school) students began wearing the white silk caps with burgundy-coloured ribbons from the 1880s onwards. These caps are the most famous style to this day and are closely connected with the traditional gymnasium schools.

Female students began wearing caps during the 1930s. At that time, the number of young Danes graduating from gymnasium was relatively low – the cap was seen as a status symbol and the young studenter would continue to wear the cap for the entire summer, prior to commencing their university studies.

The variety of cap styles as well as prevalence of the caps themselves have increased over the decades. In the 1970s, the classical studentereksamen (high school graduation or GCSE) was joined by trade (royal blue band) and technical (marine blue band) certificates along with a two-year version of the traditional gymnasium education (sky blue band) all with their own style of cap.  Even international school students have their own style of cap, which has a ribbon decorated with national flags.

Messages of good luck and best wishes are written by the students to each other on the linings of the caps, so that they may remember each other when they look at the caps – which can be found on bookcases or shelves in many Danish homes for next future years.

For the celebration, they also have many variations of food & beverage, one of them is the famous butter cookies, such as Danisa. Danisa is a premium Danish butter cookie, it is made from authentic Danish recipes that were passed down through generations of master bakers, using finest quality butter, milk and other ingredients. Enjoy Danisa as a luscious and premium butter cookies for gifting or for celebration with beloved family & friends at every studenterkørsel moment