Graduation is here, but what is a gonfalon?

For anyone who has ever sat through a college graduation ceremony, one of the questions they find themselves pondering is, "What are those funny looking flag things in the procession?" That flag thing is, in fact, a gonfalon.

While most see the gonfalon at ceremonies like commencements or in Plymouth's case, the Investiture of new President Sara Jayne Steen, it's roots stem from Italian medieval allegiances. The name "gonfalon" comes from the early Italian word cofalone.

The gonfalon was originally used as a religious object during medieval times throughout Europe. Many of them portrayed artwork featuring a village or city's saints, or portraits of religious figures such as Jesus Christ, the Virgin Mary or the Madonna of Mercy.

Often used in religious ceremonial processions, the gonfalon would be carried by members in cofraternities, "religious groups who gathered together for devotional purposes such as the singing of hymns and the performance of charitable works," cited Wikipedia.org. They thought that carrying the banner served as a holy act of worship and it was hoped that God and other saints would look favorably on them. Later, they were used to plead for a cure for the plague.

When not used in a religious sense, gonfalons were used in warfare as well. According to 1911encyclopedia.org, smaller pennants were "attached below the head of a knight's lance."

As for graduation ceremonies, gonfalons have taken on new meanings. Although gonfalons once displayed artwork, the current style present in commencement ceremonies feature long panels of different colors sewn together. Every academic major has its own gonfalon in which certain colors represent different departments.

To be selected to be a gonfalonier is considered an honor, as their academic department chooses the person elected to carry it. According to the commencement program, "Plymouth State has created gonfalons with the university colors of dark green and white on the outer nylon panels of each banner. The inner velvet panel of each represents one of the academic departments, using the colors for the academic disciplines."

According to the program from Steen's Investiture, the American Council on Education established "colors denoting specific academic fields." Some of the colors for majors at Plymouth include drab for Business Administration, pink for Music, sage green for Physical Education, golden yellow for Science, and citron for Social Work.