The ceremony is based on 800 years of academic tradition handed down from European universities of the Middle Ages. Commencement ceremonies, with their academic gowns, mortarboards, tassels, hoods and maces, are colorful, festive and dignified. It is a ceremony recognizing the successes of the university and the students who merit degrees. The first organized institutions of learning took form during the 12th and 13th centuries, generally under the jurisdiction of the church. Academic attire, as we know it today, evolved from the robes, hoods and caps worn mainly for warmth in unheated buildings by the first students.
European universities continue to show great diversity in their academic dress.
Some 10 years prior to that date, there had developed in the country a widespread student movement to wear caps and gowns at commencement ceremonies as a sign of belonging to the great profession of scholars. Since the end of the 19th century, the wearing of caps and gowns has been an integral feature of the American commencement pageantry. The first commencement in the United States was held at Harvard University in 1642 on the second Tuesday in August. In early times, candidates for degrees demonstrated their learning at commencement with orations and debates, usually in Latin or Greek. The Doctor of Philosophy degree was first conferred in the United States at Yale University in 1891.