Japanese Elementary Students Had Their Graduation Ceremony In Minecraft Because Of The Coronavirus And It's Epic

The coronavirus pandemic has brought the world to a screeching halt but didn't stop these kids from living their best life... on Minecraft

Stephanie

• Published in News
• March 20, 2020

The coronavirus pandemic has brought the world to a screeching halt. And while we are lucky that today's technology allows us to continue with our regular lives to some degree - shopping online, working from home, keeping in touch with people via phone or internet - unfortunately, there are some things we are just not able to do at the moment. Large public events being one of the main things.

In order to try and stop the spreading of COVID-19, governments around the world have put a stop to large public gatherings, as well as (in some places) closing down certain venues and even schools.

This means that many weddings, funerals, concerts, and school-related events have had to be canceled... Including this Japanese elementary school graduation.

However, a group of elementary school students decided the occasion was far too important to just let it pass by without a proper celebration, so they came up with a way to improvise.

They decided they would have their graduation ceremony in the digital realm. In Minecraft.

Shuhei Kashiwara, Tweeted about the event, which his son was involved in, with the caption: “What are you doing? We all decided to have a graduation ceremony together! Oh? Awesome. The elementary students gathered to start graduation themselves.”

“I simply happened to see the graduation ceremony. One of my son’s friends is a third-year junior high school student. It seems that he planned and executed this with his friends,” Mr. Kashiwara said.

Yep. The students organized this all by themselves! The teachers and parents didn't even know about it.

The children spent the whole day playing and having fun together online. Mr. Kashiwara said he was very impressed by how well the assembly hall was built.

“The kids are friends who play online every day. There were eight participants. Although they live in different regions and are from different grades, but they are good friends,” explained Mr. Kashiwara.

The ceremony featured an auditorium, speeches were given, and diplomas were handed out, just like a normal graduation.

Mr. Kashiwara explained why it is so important in Japanese culture for the children to participate in a graduation.

“The important point is memories with friends. It is a passing point at the break. The ceremony is boring and with long speeches given by adults. However, they extracted the most important parts for themselves during the graduation ceremony. I think it created wonderful memories within both directing and performing.”

The Tweet quickly went viral and Mr. Kashiwara say that, “...bright news that shines in a gloomy social situation. I want everyone to know that. I also hope that a new perspective will open up in the way games are perceived.”

Check out some of the graduation below!

Here's how people reacted.

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Stephanie