"Studenterhuen" - Unravelling the Danish Student Hat Tradition

As promised, or threatened, on my previous breakdown of graduation traditions, the Danish student hat, or studenterhue, is such a legend that it needs a whole post of its own. These hats are more than just a piece of graduation attire; they're a symbol of achievement, camaraderie, and a rite of passage filled with quirky and memorable customs. Different schools have different band colours. A whole list is available on this website, if you are interested!

They are such a huge part of Danish culture that Thomas held this exchange with Amaia's teacher:

Literally: 

Hi Bjørn,

Léon's getting his hat on tomorrow, so would it be ok if Amaia leaves 10-20 mins early?

Best, Thomas

Hi Thomas,

Yes! Of course 😊 And many congratulations to Léon! It is a big day. Send him all my best regards and tell him congratulations! 

All the best, Bjørn

Can you imagine understanding these messages if you had arrived in Denmark the day before? As a non-Dane, it struck me as a truly bizarre conversation. So, someone is putting on a hat and that not only lets their sister leave a different school early, but evokes all sorts of congratulatory excitement from a former teacher! Odd, indeed!

So, let me take you on the hat journey...

Months in advance, you order it, so it can be embroidered with the name of your school, your name etc. Then, it turns up a couple of weeks before your exams start in a velvet box. (No pressure there, given you earn the right to wear it by passing your exams!) It even comes with built-in pen for your mates to write their greetings, and Léon assures me the even more expensive models come with scissors too, to cut the notches!

First off, putting on the student hat before passing your final exam is considered bad luck. But once you've aced that last oral, or for that matter screwed it up royally, the hat becomes your badge of honour, and the celebrations begin!

After your final oral exam, you walk out of school for the last time on a red carpet, reveal your final mark to your parents, and then write it in the centre of your hat before they place it on your head. It’s a proud moment, marked with cheers, confetti, and lots of Danish-flag-coloured roses. 

At that point, out of nowhere Léon's mates appeared to welcome him into the graduate ranks with the famous beer bong, that seems to play quite a major role in this whole rite of passage.

Over the month of July, with nightly parties, the kids try to earn as many symbols as possible for the inside of their hat.

Traditions and Notches

The inside of the hat, including its sweatband end up telling quite a story:

• Size Matters: Months ago, when they were measuring their heads with a view to ordering their hats, the students with the largest and smallest hat sizes were duly noted. And again after the graduation when they had all been issued their GPA, the lowest and highest scoring student in each class was again noted. Those four, or perhaps fewer if there happens to be an overlap, have to provide a drink for all their classmates to get the party started.
• Greetings Inside the Hat: Friends and classmates write messages inside your hat, cheeky, or sincere, turning it into a keepsake full of memories.
• Sweatband/Visor Notches: Various experiences earn you notches cut out in the sweatband or visor. Throwing up from too much partying? That's a triangle in the visor, a visible-to-the-world symbol of your fuck-up. Thirteen parties in and Léon’s hat remains unscathed in this regard... I don't think I'd have predicted that!
• 24-Hour Mark: If you manage to stay awake for 24 hours straight, you earn the right to turn your hat the other way around. 

Of course, from the day after the student truck (the 4th day after Léon's last exam) Léon's has been the wrong way round, but I have noticed more and more of the kids in the photos from his nightly parties have theirs on backwards as time progresses. It's quite handy even, given that means you can read their name, if you can't remember who someone is!

The Symbolic Language

Your hat can become quite the storybook, with symbols denoting your various feats either drawn or cut into the inside. Here is a list of just some of the symbols to be drawn inside or cut into the inner sweatband that Léon has told me about, and how you go about earning them:

• Wave: Jump in the sea wearing only your hat.
• Square: Drink a case of beer in 24 hours.
• Fish: Down 24 shots in 24 hours.
• Lightning Bolt: Have sex wearing only your hat.
• Circle: Run around a roundabout in your town wearing only your hat.
• Cross: Run around the church in your town wearing only your hat. (Yes, nudity, is a leit motif of graduating high school.)
• Triangle: Stay awake for 24 hours.
• House: Achieve the 24-hour triangle, square for drinking a case, and feel free to add a chimney if you smoke a pack of cigarettes that day too.
• Corn: Run through a cornfield wearing only your hat.
• Crown: Run around your old school grounds wearing only your hat.
• Signpost: Climb a road sign and drink a beer on top.
• Tree: Climb a tree and drink a beer sitting on top.
• Car: Flag down a random car and have the driver feed you beer from a funnel.
• Funnel: Drink beer from a funnel while peeing against a tree.
• Submarine: Drink beer from a bong with your head underwater, usually alongside the wave symbol.

So, basically, do anything in the nude and draw whatever you fancy inside your hat! Just as well the nights are reasonably warm at the moment!

Rotating symbols

On the front of each hat is a button-sized burgundy-coloured symbol. Most have a cross, as Denmark is traditionally a Christian country, even if there isn't much church-going still going on. But you can get it with a crescent, or a star of David if you prefer. Léon has no religion, so opted for the initials STX, which is just means grammar school. This symbol can rotate, and you apparently earn the right to turn it upside down by kissing someone of the same gender, if you are straight, or the opposite gender if you are gay. As far as I can see, everyone in Léon's photo has this upside down currently, though it is slightly subtler on the cross ones than on the STX option!😂

Biting the Skip

Lastly, the pristine hat gets a makeover from day one. Friends and teachers bite into the patent leather brim, leaving tooth indentations to symbolise leaving a lasting mark on someone’s life. I became aware of this when during the after graduation buffet, Léon's politics teacher came over to congratulate him and Léon offered to let him bite his hat, and the teacher obliged without a puzzled look. I guess that tradition was probably paused during Covid. I'm so glad the kids weren't hit by that during Gymnasium.

These are the hat rules Léon has mentioned to me but the list is even longer according to the official site (in Danish)!

By the end of the celebrations, the hat is a well-worn, personalised memento of your student days. I must have a wee look inside Léon's next time he's taking a shower, though do I even want to know?! I know he has already clocked up most of the naked ones!😂 In saying that, having a shower wearing only your hat is probably a challenge too, just to guard against your mother getting a peak at what you have been getting up to all night every night!