Graduation Season
How the world celebratesGraduation does not fall in one universal month: Japan graduates in March before the April school year, Taiwan and mainland China mostly in June–July, US districts in May–June, India around March–May alongside board-exam results, Indonesia in May–June before its July school year, and Brazil in December.
Quick answers
| Place | When is it? | How the date is set |
|---|---|---|
| United States | Date to be confirmed | Everyday topic |
| Brazil | Date to be confirmed | Everyday topic |
| China | Date to be confirmed | Everyday topic |
| Indonesia | Date to be confirmed | Everyday topic |
| India | Date to be confirmed | Everyday topic |
| Japan | Date to be confirmed | Everyday topic |
| Taiwan | Date to be confirmed | Everyday topic |
🗳️ What about you?
Asked by the 🇺🇸 English community
At your graduations, do people throw their caps into the air?
Live answers aren't available right now. Read the topic below.
Say what is wrong and what is correct — a source link helps.
Near you
Colorado State University
The state university nearest this market. Its commencement office runs one university-wide ceremony each spring, plus roughly twenty separate college-level recognition ceremonies for graduates.
Directions
Events
Nothing here yet.
Now
People are talking about this
Live discussion isn't available right now
Read the topic and check back later.
How the world celebrates
- Date to be confirmedLocal date
How is it done in Brazil?
Brazil's graduation season is December, because the school year opens in February and closes in December. Finishing secondary school comes with its own full programme: the formatura ceremony, often a Mass, the baile, and the colação de grau. It connects to the southern-hemisphere summer and the end-of-year break, so graduating, going on holiday, Christmas and New Year frequently crowd into the same stretch of weeks.Graduating in December runs into something else: the end of the school year is also the start of the whole holiday season, so the ceremony often leads straight into travel and family gatherings, with the two compressed into the same stretch.
- Date to be confirmedLocal date
How is it done in China?
Mainland China's graduation season runs June into July, overlapping the gaokao. The June exam more or less defines the whole season: for final-year students the ceremony weighs far less than the exam and the choice of university preferences, while for other year groups June is simply the end of term. School events, photographs and farewell meals cluster in early July, followed by the waiting period as admission letters arrive one by one.Because the gaokao outweighs everything else, the graduation season in mainland China reads more like a waiting period: from the end of the exam to the results, and from the results to the admission letter arriving, the blank in between is what people remember most about the season.
- Date to be confirmedLocal date
How is it done in Indonesia?
Indonesia's graduation season falls in May and June, just before the new academic year opens in July. The in-school perpisahan, a farewell gathering, is often separate from the wisuda, the formal ceremony parents attend. Because the new year starts in July, the break is short, and the gap between graduating and enrolling somewhere new is often only a few weeks.Because the new academic year opens in July, only a few weeks separate graduating from enrolling, so families handle the farewell and the next stage's costs at once — uniforms, books and registration fees frequently all land in the same month.
- Date to be confirmedLocal date
How is it done in India?
India's graduation season follows each state's and each school's own year, mostly falling between March and May and tied to the release of board exam results. At school level, 'graduating' is usually marked by results and by where they lead rather than by a ceremony; university convocations may be held months after the term actually ends. So in India the date of graduating and the date of celebrating it are frequently two separate things.Because exam results decide both progression and subject, the season in India is also when family discussion is most intense: what to study, which state to go to, whether to retake — those decisions usually settle within weeks of the results.
- Date to be confirmedLocal date
How is it done in Japan?
Japan's graduation season is March, because the school year ends on 31 March. The graduation ceremony is followed almost immediately by the entrance ceremony and the new year on 1 April, with only a spring break in between. The joint is tight: a diploma in March, then a new uniform, a new school and a new class in April, with company induction ceremonies falling in the same week. The second button, the farewell address and the parting songs all belong to March.The tightness of March also means the farewell has a deadline: the same class still exists up to 31 March and is recombined on 1 April, and even the homeroom teacher may be moved on by the annual staff transfer.
- Date to be confirmedLocal date
How is it done in Taiwan?
Taiwan's graduation season is June, because the school year runs to 31 July and the second term ends in late June. Ceremonies, the moving of the tassel, the graduation song and the photographs cluster into those weeks, followed by entrance-exam results and enrolment at the next school. It is also an administrative stretch: final grades, transfer of student records and registration at the new school all压 into the same month.Beyond the songs and the yearbook, what actually cuts one stage from the next is the transcript and the offer from the next school — the ceremony is in June, but the decision was usually settled in an earlier exam.
- Date to be confirmedLocal date
How is it done in United States?
In the United States the graduation season falls in May and June, and it is the most heavily ceremonial of the seven places here: gowns, caps, commencement speeches, the cap toss, relatives flying in from other states, with prom and commencement together forming a whole social season. Because the school year is set district by district, graduation dates within a single state can differ by weeks. Commencement in the United States is often a family-scale event rather than merely an administrative marker.The commencement address is a genre in its own right: an invited speaker addresses the whole hall, and the text is often carried by the press afterwards. That gives the American ceremony a layer of public address turned outward, not only a rite held inside the school.
Sources and dates
Dates follow local time zones, calendars, and official notices. Check the source when a date is estimated or locally variable.