The History and Opinion of Homecoming
By Azamya A.
Homecoming is a fundamental part of high school that everyone should experience at least once. Everyone has different opinions on school dances, some of them can be really fun and others can suck, but no matter how your experience starts you can always make the best of it.
The first homecoming started as a way to welcome back members of an alumni football team from colleges and universities to “Come Home” to watch a game between the Kansas Jayhawks and the Missouri Tigers to watch the rivalry game, Because the game was such a big deal there was a parade and a marching band walking through the city. What started as a simple pregame became an ongoing tradition.
Today homecoming is a week-long celebration including the Pie in the Eye assembly, spirit week, the homecoming football game and then the dance itself. Homecoming has come a long way and is now celebrated every year around September and October and will continue to be celebrated for years to come.
The tradition of homecoming has grown over the years and continues to change since the original. Students now have a tradition for each part of the dance. Starting with the poster or asking your date out, getting ready with your friends, taking pictures, going to dinner, the dance and then potential after parties. Granted everyone has their own set of traditions but that's the case for the majority of people.
Anonymous 12th grade students express how they miss all the old traditions Mountain Range used to do. “ I miss the firework show most of all, that used to be the best part of the homecoming game. Minus the halftime show of course.” They also explain their homecoming traditions and something they would change about homecoming in general. “ Every year I’ve gone to homecoming my friends and I would get ready together and I feel like us doing that we would have so much fun it was almost pregaming the rest of the night making it even better. After getting ready we would meet our dates at a park to take pictures, go to dinner then the dance and depending on how the dance goes we will go to an after party or go do an activity together. Something I wish I could change about homecoming is the fact we can't choose the theme or make suggestions for the theme. And I'd add activities like a photo booth or something interactive, because dancing is fun but it's also tiring and that gym gets hot and stinky fast.”
This year homecoming was a little diverse with the amount of people who think that it was fun and the people who think it was boring. The majority of the people who were interviewed that would like to remain anonymous thought that their pre-homecoming traditions were more fun than the dance itself. Some believed it might have been because the DJ wasn't playing good music and others believe it was the theme. Either way homecoming and even prom will continue to be a controversial thing because not everyone can be satisfied.
