The homecoming mum is a high school tradition that many believe originated in Texas. Around the month of October, if you go to any high school in Texas, you’ll find people in a frenzy over homecoming week. Crafting stores always sell out of ribbons, bells, and small, novelty knicknacks people use to adorn their mums. Texans ALL go ALL out on mums. You’ll find some people's mums to be bigger than their actual body. Yes, that’s right, bigger than their body. Although that might seem a little extreme, you know what they say, “Everything is bigger in Texas.”

Despite this fervor, however, the first ever homecoming mums were actually spotted in Missouri in 1911. It wasn’t till the 1930s that mums were introduced to Texas. Origins aside, Texas has adopted mums and made them a staple of Texas high school traditions. 

The original meaning of a mum was supposed to represent a romantic gesture between a boy and a girl, but, overtime, student athletes started to adopt the habit of getting mums during homecoming season. Even though a lot of high schoolers still believe you can only wear a mum or garter if you are in some type of sport, that is not the case. Almost anyone can wear a mum even if you are not in any extracurricular activities. 

The mum itself stems from the chrysanthemum flower. Before the 90s, the floral base of a mum was an actual flower. Later on, mum makers switched to artificial versions to simplify the process, and mums became easier to preserve. Today as well, some teens spend $500 dollars or more just to purchase a mum, but others choose to invest their time instead and take it upon themselves to make their own. 

Many find it silly that so many high schoolers are willing to empty their wallets and pockets for something that is worn for a single day, but mums carry meaning for highschoolers. Mums represent a student’s high school years and growth. Later in life, students will be able to look back on their mums and reflect on how much they and their interests have changed.

To coincide with this meaning, a high school mum is supposed to get bigger as you go on through high school to symbolize your evolution as an adolescent. As a freshman, you start off small, and by the time you’re a senior, you go ALL out because it’s your last year of high school. 

Overtime, mums have become so much more than a flower that you decorate for homecoming. It is a physical symbol of an individual’s time in high school that captures their character during that time of their life: whether the flower is little or big, the ribbons surrounding and hanging show off all your hobbies and interests of the person wearing it.

Knowing the past, now, you can look forward to the future when your mums give you the opportunity to see just how far you have come and changed–just like the tradition itself.