Traditions and exceptions

The current year as a student union’s event producer has been interesting, to say the least. For some reason, almost no events were organized in the spring, and my duties have included the planning and canceling of events, organizing the relocation of the city centre campus service office, and renewing of the TREY office furniture. Now this weekend, however, we get to celebrate an unprecedented event in TREY’s history – a flag ceremony. But what exactly is a flag ceremony?

Some organizations have a flag at their disposal, more specifically a parade flag. Another option is the more traditional that you can find in a flagpole. The parade flag can be carried by a person, and parade flags can be seen in the annual celebrations of organizations, where the flag can be carried in the center of the celebration in the beginning of the event.

In order for the parade flag to be usable, it must be nailed to the flagpole. The tradition is that the nailing is done by people of value to the association, and interest group representatives.

Flag nailing is a symbolic event that is always held when a new carrier is introduced. In general, organizations have one parade flag at their disposal, and unless something very strange happens, it lasts forever. Because of this, flag ceremonies are rarely held, and the TREY flag ceremony now being held is probably the only one of its kind.

After nailing the flag, the flag is inaugurated. The inauguration of the flag can be done either immediately after the flag is nailed, or later at a separate time. The flag can be consecrated at either ecclesiastical or secular expenditures, and usually the inauguration of the flag is performed only once. For example, if an organization’s flag is destroyed or tarnished, after purchasing a new flag, the new flag is usually not inaugurated, as it can be considered a replacement for the old flag.

Due to the special year, this event will also have to be organized by special arrangements.. This year, it has been the most difficult thing for me personally to accept that things are not going the way I would like to. Not being able to influence things with your own work causes frustration. It is comforting that the general atmosphere regarding cancellations has been encouraging.

However, as the situation continues, we cannot remain worried, but we must look to the future and come up with new ways of organizing events that also make sense at a distance. Even if local events are more pleasing to ourselves, we cannot stop organizing all events until the situation improves. Let’s keep the flag flying!