Maturaball!

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I have now experienced two famous ‘Matura Ball’s’; The HBLA where Claudia works and the Wimmer Gymnasium which is one of Jacob’s schools. The Matura ball is the Austrian equivalent of our school prom, however is much bigger and exciting and therefore deserves a whole blog post to be dedicated to it.

‘Matura’ is the name of the exams which Austrian school students sit when they finish school. It is usually compared to A-levels in the UK as the pupils are 19 when they take them and it is not compulsory; there are other routes or qualifications that can be taken instead, however they are the most popular route in education. The Matura ball is a leavers ball which is held for the students who will be taking their Matura and leaving school in the coming June, however they are held quite early in the year. The students in the Matura classes invite their families who are each allocated a table in the hall (although the Ball is not a meal), and then the remaining tickets are sold to the rest of the students in the school and also to the general public. It is a huge event which starts at 7.pm and carries on until approximately 6am, and I have heard rumours that some students go for a champagne breakfast before going home.

At around 8.30 the students in the Matura class perform a dance called a ‘polonaise’. This dance is taken very seriously and rehearsals take place for months in advance. The girls all wear a white dress and the boys wear dinner suits. Each student must have a partner to dance with, and as such some people taking part in the dance are not always from the Matura class, or even from the school. This dance is fascinating to watch; I could never imagine boys in the UK taking a dance like this as seriously as the Austrian students take it, and not a single person is left out. Afterwards, the Matura Students dance with their parents (i.e the girls dance with their fathers and the boys dance with their mother) or occasionally with teachers. The dance floor is then open for anyone to dance for the rest of the night, and some couples take this very seriously! The students then do another dance at midnight; however this is usually much more modern and upbeat and doesn’t require a partner. The midnight dance also has a different outfit, the white dresses and suits are changed. There are several bars around the room and a disco in a separate room, as well as occasional different things going on.



I wanted to write a post about this because it’s quite an exciting part of Austrian culture that I’ve experienced, and if anyone reading this is planning on doing a year abroad in Austria, I would definitely advise you to take a nice dress/suit and go along to one, even if you’re not working in a school. I’m looking forward to the Maturaball for my school in January!

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Photos

Maturaball
The dance floor

Maturaball
The tables...the pictures at the back are photos of the Matura Students.

Matruaball
The 4 of us ready for the ball!

Maturaball
At the ball!