Cherishing Sailor Sisterhood with Annual Capping and Pinning Ceremony

10/30/2018

On Tuesday, Oct. 30, Marymount held its annual Capping and Pinning Ceremony, which serves as the official initiation of our Freshmen to Sailor Sisterhood and celebrates Sophomores last year as lowerclassmen.

In the ceremony, Freshmen receive a Sailor cap from their Junior Big Sisters, while Sophomores are gifted a pin from their Senior Big Sisters. This beloved tradition is a true celebration of unity between classmates from all grades.

After prayer, Head of School Jacqueline L. Landry noted that the origin of Marymount Sailors is rooted in the biblical allusions to water and the seas as an ancient symbol of turbulence, calm, and restoration.

“In life, you are going to find turbulent waters – but you are never on those seas alone,” Ms. Landry said. “The most important part of Capping and Pinning is to remind us that no matter what, you have one another – you have friendships not yet discovered, and you have strengths not yet to be unfolded.”

Ms. Landry read a selection from Walt Whitman’s poem Passage to India, excerpted below:

O we can wait no longer,

We too take ship O soul,

Joyous we too launch out on trackless seas,

Fearless for unknown shores on waves of ecstasy to sail,

Amid the wafting winds, (thou pressing me to thee, I thee to me, O soul,)

Caroling free, singing our song of God,

Chanting our chant of pleasant exploration.

With laugh and many a kiss,

(Let others deprecate, let others weep for sin, remorse, humiliation,)

O soul thou pleasest me, I thee.

Ah more than any priest O soul we too believe in God,

But with the mystery of God we dare not dally.

O soul thou pleasest me, I thee,

Sailing these seas or on the hills, or waking in the night,

Thoughts, silent thoughts, of Time and Space and Death, like waters flowing,

Bear me indeed as through the regions infinite,

Whose air I breathe, whose ripples hear, lave me all over,

Bathe me O God in thee, mounting to thee,

I and my soul to range in range of thee.

- Excerpt from Passage to India, by Walt Whitman

Longtime Marymount English teacher Margaret Brady ‘89 also addressed the students and fondly recalled the Capping & Pinning ceremonies during her time as a student.

“In this ceremony, we officially celebrate the part we play in the Marymount family, and this family extends beyond the group of students you will cap or pin or be capped and pinned by today. It extends beyond the student body at Marymount High School, Los Angeles. It extends beyond the present student bodies at Marymount High Schools around the world,” Ms. Brady said. “Marymount and its alumnae are a living, breathing group of women who take care of each other.”

After Juniors capped Freshman with their white Sailor hats, and Seniors pinned Sophomores with blue-jeweled pins, the ceremony ended with another happy tradition of Freshmen tossing their caps to the sky on the steps of Cantwell Hall.

Back