Szalagavato

On Friday February 4 I had the pleasure of experiencing my first Szalagavoto. The closest comparison that I could come up with for this event would be a combination of a senior ball and a graduation. Szalagavoto is meant to be a time of celebration and acknowledgement of graduation for the school leavers -- the graduating 12th and 13th graders. Students, parents, and teachers all attend.

The event begins with the school leavers entering and standing in rows by class. As they stand, the principal comes up and gives a speech to them. After that speech, the class teachers pin a ribbon on each of their students. These ribbons are worn by the students until they graduate; in fact, I'm beginning to see a lot of people walking around or sitting on the metro wearing these ribbons.

The principal giving his speech. To the left of him, you can see some students (11th and 12th grade) holding a pillow with all of the ribbons for the class.

Once the ribbons have been pinned, a series of class dances are performed. Every class performs a dance, most of them fun and with popular American songs (Michael Jackson or Cotton Eye Joe for example). The picture above was the first dance. It was a traditional Hungarian dance that every Szalagavato of old did. The picture below was a fun dance that some of my students were a part of. Their class teacher is one of the English teachers; she is the middle person in the black tank top. Yup, the class teachers join their classes.

However, the mood of the dances change when they come to the last dance. The last dance they perform is a Vienna Waltz. All of the girls come out in elegant prom dresses (almost like wedding dresses) and the men in nice suits and they perform the dance. They perform it twice rotating 180 degrees, so that each side of the stadium was able to see the different groups.

These two pictures are of the Vienna Waltz. One of my student and one of the group.

Unfortunately, I cannot upload the videos that I have of the dances because they are too large, but I'll keep working on it; it's worth it to see them.