Graduation tassels are some of the most important parts of a graduates attire on a very special day. They represent a students hard work and all of the effort that they have put into their academic career and their education. It is the graduation tassels that mark the actual minute that a student becomes an alumni with the turning ceremony.

These little accessories are more than just fun little things that sit on the side of the mortar board of a graduate. Most schools, colleges, and universities participate in the turning of the tassels ceremony in which each graduate moves them from the one side of the head to the other. This is actually a fairly modern innovation, but in outdoor ceremonies, turning graduation tassels may be skipped, especially if conditions are windy and the tassel would blow to all sides regardless.

Which side do they start on and which side are they moved to?

The act of moving the graduation tassels from side to side is beneficial for graduation ceremonies with a large number of graduates, because it takes a lot less time than the more traditional rituals such as each individual conferring the hood, or sometimes a complete change of dress part way through the ceremony is done. In universities and high schools, it is now customary for students to start the ceremony with the graduation tassels on the right. Turning the graduation tassels to the left may be done individually or as a group. However, the graduation tassels usually begin on the left side of the head and remain there on the left for doctorate and masters degree students.

Graduation tassels are worn on the mortarboard or the tam of a graduate. A tam is a graduation cap that is reserved for the higher level degrees, such as the Masters, Doctorate, or the PhD degrees. Graduation tassels are traditionally black in color, but more and more, the tassel can be representative of the schools colors, to match caps and gowns, or in universities, graduation tassels represent the specific school of study that a degree is being earned in. The graduation tassels can also be a certain color to signify membership in national honor societies or to distinguish recipients of certain other awards as well.

Even though there is a little bit of variation that surrounds the tradition of graduation tassels, for the most part it is the same across the country and for many different schools, and the best part is that students get to keep those tassels as souvenirs after the ceremony is all done.