Homecoming?

[Ashes]

Can someone explain to a non-American what homecoming is? I have cousins who live in Tucson, Arizona and they constantly talk about it and I often see it in TV shows and go "WTF is all that about?"

[optid]

Homecoming is an annual celebration held during our autumn at high schools, colleges, and universities.
The nominal reason is to welcome back alumni who have since graduated. But most of the people who participate in the various homecoming events (at least at high schools) are current students.

The focal point of homecoming is usually one of the regularly scheduled home football games for the school. But there are other events as well.
During the week preceding the homecoming football game, a homecoming queen and king are elected at the school. They preside over the various activities.

Some other homecoming events include:
• A homecoming dance
• A bonfire (at some schools)
• A homecoming parade, prior to the football game

These are just some of the basics. And things can differ from school to school.

[Ashes]

Ah ok, thanks I understand now.

[Just[a]Plague]

we dont have a parade, instead we have a fricken' awesome half time show

[Patronus]

Yeah, homecoming stuff can vary a lot, though. A lot of places the dance is a huge deal and everybody's looking for dates and stuff, but at my school nobody cared about the dance at all....it was just like a regular after-game dance where the same people as always went in the clothes they wore to the football game....so like football t-shirts and stuff. And really the only kids who cared about any part of homecoming at all were the in-crowd. We also had "homecoming" for basketball.

[Omep]

We have the entire week before homecoming with the theme of this year's homecoming (e.g. if our homecoming dance's theme was Mardi Gras then the week before it would also be themed Mardi Gras) and also each day has its own dress theme, an activity or two during lunch and also after school, a ton of school spirit and stuff being sold like colored pom-poms, t-shirts, etc. Friday of homecoming week is a half day and the second half of Friday morning is when we have our homecoming assembly where the court gets introduced, the king, queen, prince, and princess are announced, and there are a lot of other little skit things too. Friday afternoon is the parade and Friday evening is the football game. The dance is on Saturday evening.

[Chronic Town]

we have a homecoming battle royale dodgeball tournament

[optid]

we have a homecoming battle royale dodgeball tournamentThat's rather unusual. :P

Homecoming occasionally falls close to Halloween. When that happens there is a bit of a Halloween theme to some of the homecoming events.

To be more specific, homecoming takes place in October or early November.

[Omep]

To be more specific, homecoming takes place in October or early November.
Ours is in the middle of September but that may be because we start on August 2.

[optid]

Ours is in the middle of September but that may be because we start on August 2.Oops! :o
If the original purpose of homecoming was to welcome back alumni, that's remarkably early. That's especially so for college students who may have just started classes and who are not considering trips back home near their old high schools so soon.

[jgar6]

At our homecommings we get all dressed up like prom. Some people even get limosines(thats a bit overboard in my opinion).

[Oh Sh*t!]

In my school, it's in september. The week is filled with themes and stuff. The last day(friday), we have a pep rally and at night is our first football game of the year. And on staurday is the homecoming dance. So it's called homecoming week for me.

[Oxford]

Oops! :o
If the original purpose of homecoming was to welcome back alumni, that's remarkably early. That's especially so for college students who may have just started classes and who are not considering trips back home near their old high schools so soon.

Ours is in October, but few alumni ever come. Usually the only ones to show up are past homecoming kings/queens.

[optid]

Ours is in October, but few alumni ever come. Usually the only ones to show up are past homecoming kings/queens.Alumni from HS tend to return during breaks rather than at homecoming.

Thanksgiving break is an especially cool time. It's the first time many of those who just graduated and went away to relatively distant colleges are seen hanging out back in town.
Good times. :)

Over here there are HS basketball tournaments that coincide with winter break. The Proviso West Holiday Tournament starts just after Christmas and alumni tend to show up at the games.

Of course schools are not in session during these breaks, so there no organized activities to greet alumni.

The concept of alumni returning to their old places of learning during homecoming seems to be much stronger in college than it is at the HS level.