For most high school students, homecoming is the most important time of year. In fact, in most schools, activities for the entire year are merely a set up leading to the climax of this one important football game. Included among homecoming activities are crazy traditions. Here are some of the more unusual homecoming traditions across America.
Image: Comwiz (Flickr)
Homecoming Mums in Texas
Many students in Texas take homecoming mums just as serious as the homecoming game itself. A homecoming mum is an oversized corsage wildly decorated in school colors with anything from bows, bells, stuffed animals, long ribbons or streamers, and even lights. This southwest version of a corsage is so big it is worn around the neck as a breastplate with streamers flowing down the front of the body to the floor. When it comes to mums for homecoming, it seems the tackier, the better. Homecoming mums have been known to cost more than $200 and weigh more than 20 pounds. Traditionally given to girls by their boyfriends, mums are exchanged by boys and girls alike by family members or friends. Boys wear a smaller version of mums on their sleeve called homecoming garters.
The Speedo Dash
At Cupertino High School near San Jose, Calif., the boys water polo team shows off their half naked bodies -scantily clad in Speedos by making a dash out of the corner of the football stadium and running across the field during halftime. That may not seem so bizarre, except that they do this at the moment the homecoming king and queen – all dressed up – are being crowned. Nonetheless, it is a popular homecoming tradition at Cupertino, with their much anticipated entrance being announced over the stadium PA and high school girls cheering wildly as they dash across the field.
Cross-dressing
In a small Texas school district, high schoolers from Spurger county celebrate TWIRP, which stands for “The Woman Is Requested to Pay.” During homecoming week, boys and girls have a chance to reverse social roles and let older girls invite boys on dates, open doors and pay for sodas (cougars in the making?) There is an additional twist. To add a dramatic visual to the conventional role change, this homecoming tradition encourages boys to dress like girls and vice versa (in other words – cross dressing.) This unusual tradition has been stopped by one parent’s complaint of “homosexual overtones.”
Weird Homecoming Mascots
Forget fierce and intimidating animal mascots, some high schools are so confident in their athletic teams, they transcend the cliché symbols of bravery, stamina and victory. Take the “The Laurel Hill Hoboes,” for example. This high school mascot is a basically a clown-type bum with a school letter t-shirt. A high school in Huntington Beach, California has “The Huntington Beach Oilers.” The mascot is a man in a hard hat, boots and a wrench standing in front of an oil leak. It is easy to imagine the students fighting each year over who is going to be the mascot in that homecoming parade. Centralia High School features “The Orphans” (for boys) and “The Annies” (for girls). New Berlin High School has a pretzel as their mascot.
April Lentini writes for Apartment Guide in Austin.
