January 14, 2011: Ribbon Ceremony at Ujpest

January 14, 2011: The school day at Ujpest ended at 12:10 so that those who were part of the Ribbon Ceremony to be held in the evening could prepare. This included me, so I returned home and changed clothing into my sports jacket and tie. I then boarded the bus for my long trip to Buda. The sports arena where the ceremony took place was enormous. It was really a gymnasium for basketball and there were stands on two opposite sides where the students, teachers, and parents sat.

After practicing our dance a couple of times, we teachers stood at the sidelines watching all the other performers get ready.


The show started at 6:00 and began with a song whose words provided an inspirational message for the students receiving their ribbons.

After that everyone stood for the national anthem. I don't know if I've ever described the Hungarian national anthem before, but it's a very melancholy and enchanting anthem. Certainly not ceremonious like other nations' anthems, but very sincere, proud, and rousing nevertheless. After that the principal of the school made a quick speech and the form masters of the students receiving their ribbons were beckoned to the floor where the principal pinned ribbons on the chests of the form masters. Then each of the seven classes marched forward to receive their ribbons from the form master. The form master gave a kiss on each cheek to each student if the form master was a woman, and the male form masters shook their students' hands.

Ribbon Ceremony for Ujpest High School

Mária Pozsár being presented ribbon as form master

Student receiving ribbon

Ujpest Ribbon

As you can see in the first picture, each of the seven classes was dressed in its own same outfit -- black suit with a unique-colored shirt and tie. One class had red shirts with red striped ties, one had blue shirts with white ties, one had black shirts with fluorescent-colored ties, etc. After all the students had received their ribbons, the class presented the form master with a basket of begonias.

During the presenting of the ribbons of the last four classes, we teachers left our seats to change into our outfits -- three quarter length shorts with colorful shirts for the men, and sarongs and colorful tops for the ladies. The changing room for the teachers was unisex so the men occupied one half, the ladies the other half, divided only by some lockers in the middle. The school had prepared leis of popcorn for all of us teachers to wear. 

 Then it was time for the show. First up was the teachers' dance which received huge applause -- the iron clap. Some of the students created a wave as we danced. We ended up doing the dance a second time facing the opposite direction so that each side of the stadium had an opportunity to see the dance from both sides. Here is a YouTube copy of the dance. There may be other versions that show more and I'll attach those to this blog entry later if that's the case.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=laujn6fWSjc&feature=mfu_in_order&list=UL 

At any rate, a number of teachers and parents came to me afterward to tell me how much they enjoyed the dance. I guess people of my generation still "have the moves"!

After our dance, all the students came to the floor and lit candles and marched around the gymnasium floor in the dark.

Then each of the ribboned classes did a dance together with their form masters. These dances must be fairly standard fare for Hungarian high schools -- I find it wonderful that all the form masters are such good sports and participate in them with their students because most of the dances are quite athletic involving breakdancing, judo moves, and all sorts of contortions.

One of my favorite renditions was Swan Lake as done by one of the boys classes.

After the swans had all died at the end of that portion of their dance, the boys shed their tutus and performed quite an impressive athletic series of movements ending with a human pyramid.

When all the classes had finished their dances (many of them twice so that both sides of the auditorium could see the dances from front and from back), professional dances were performed. First up was a Hungarian folk dance performed by boys and girls wearing traditional Hungarian costumes. 

Then there were break dancers. 

video here (1)

The last number was a formal dance where all the ribboned boys were dressed in tuxedos with long tails and their girlfriends wore long white weddinglike gowns. They danced the waltz in a synchronized dance. That was the end of the planned program and from then on, it was students dancing with their mothers/friends, etc.

By then I was famished since it was after 9:00. I went upstairs to a room reserved for the teachers and we all ate very fine open faced sandwiches, drank wine, and talked. It was a perfect way to end a very entertaining evening.