Differences between high school prom and homecoming dance party
Each academic year, high school promenade and homecoming dance parties were held as one of entertainment programs at school. And here are the differences between prom and homecoming from Wikipedia article.
1. Prom
Prom is a dance party for high school students. It may be offered in semi-formal black tie or informal suit for boys, and evening gowns for girls. This event is typically held near the end of the school year. There may be individual junior (11th grade) and senior (12th grade) proms or they may be combined.
At a prom, a "prom king" and a "prom queen" may be revealed. These are honorary titles awarded to students elected in a school-wide vote prior to the prom. Other students may be honored with inclusion in a prom court. The selection method for a prom court is similar to that of homecoming queen/princess, king/prince, and court. Inclusion in a prom court may be a reflection of popularity of those students elected and their level of participation in school activities, such as clubs or sports. The prom queen and prom king may be given crowns to wear. Members of the prom court may be given sashes to wear and photographed together.
Similar events, which may be locally inspired by debutante balls, take place in many other parts of the world. In Canada, the terms "formal" and "Grad" are often used, while in Australia and New Zealand, the terms school formal and ball are most commonly used for occasions equivalent to the American prom, and the event is usually held for students in Year 12, although the bestowing of the regal titles does not occur. Many schools hold a formal graduation ball for finishing students at the end of the year in place of or as well as a formal. In Ireland, a debutante ball or debs may also be held. In Poland and Lithuania, high schools organize a "studniówka" (lt. “Šimtadienis”). The term "prom" has become more common in the United Kingdom and Canada because of the influence of American films and television shows, such as Grease. In South Africa, this event is widely known as a matric dance as students in their 12th year of school are called matric students.
Variation exists between different dialects with regard to whether prom is used with the definite article or not—e.g., whether one says "go to the prom" or "go to prom".
- Attire and dress
Traditionally, boys dress in black or white formal wear, often tuxedos regardless of the time of the event, sometimes paired with ties or bow ties with vests, in some cases in colors matching their date's dress.
Traditionally, girls wear dresses or evening gowns and adorn themselves with ladies' jewelry such as earrings and a necklace. Traditionally, girls wear perfume, and make-up such as eyeshadow, lipstick, mascara, and blush. Girls also traditionally wear a corsage, given to them by their dates, and girls give boys matching boutonnières to be worn on their lapels.
By the 2000s, the clothes girls wear to prom have become more revealing due to the influence of celebrities and the mass media.
- Promposal
A "promposal" (a portmanteau of "prom" and "proposal") is a popular pre-prom tradition where a student asks another to go to the prom with them using some (usually elaborate) method and extra fanfare. A promposal is distinct from the normal prom ask, which typically includes the question, "Will you go to prom with me?" without additional spectacle. Promposals may include concepts and materials from posters, confetti, and balloons to the more viral, elaborate plans that give promposals their extravagant reputation. Examples include spelling "Prom?" with pepperoni on pizza, organizing a flash mob, wearing a fursuit, graffitiing national park land, and using a hot-air balloon. Promposals, due to their flashy nature, often include a social media aspect like livestreaming, taking and posting videos, and other forms of memorializing on social media platforms.
- Traditions
Prom attendees may be limited by their schools to be juniors or seniors and guests under age 21. Before prom, girls typically get their hair styled, often in groups as a social activity at a salon. Prom couples then gather at a park, garden, or their own and their dates’ houses for single and group photographs. Prom attendees may rent limousines or party buses to transport groups of friends from their homes to the prom venue. Some schools host their proms at hotel ballrooms, banquet halls, or other venues where weddings typically take place. The dance itself may have a band or DJ. At prom, a meal may be served. By the early 21st century, prom has become a multi-billion-dollar business in the United States, with each family spending hundreds to even thousands of dollars for the occasion.
Some high schools allow only the graduating class (seniors) to have a prom. Some schools also allow grade 11 (juniors) to have a prom, and in some cases, there is a combined junior/senior prom. Some American high schools that do not allow school-sponsored dances will host a junior/senior prom as a banquet instead of a dance. Typically, students still dress in formal attire and attend as couples. In recent years, American teens have started asking celebrities or famous models to their proms.
- Post-prom
After the prom, parents or a community may host a prom after-party, afterglow or post-prom at a restaurant, entertainment venue, or a student's home. Other traditions often include trips to nearby attractions, such as amusement parks, regional or local parks, or vacation houses. Some of these post-prom events are chaperoned and some are unsupervised. Many post-proms (after-prom events) are at the school, and involve bringing entertainment such as interactive games, artists, and other entertainers to the school, as a means to deter inappropriate behaviors.
- Charitable prom organizations
Charitable prom organizations are groups, primarily in the United States, that give away prom dresses to high school girls who may not be able to otherwise afford them. One such group, The Glass Slipper Project, works with Chicago area girls. The project has been discussed on the website for The Oprah Winfrey Show and in the Chicago Tribune. The Perfect Prom Project is active at the University of Illinois at Urbana–Champaign.
Charitable prom organizations in the US are listed on donatemydress.org. Some prom retail stores are also charitable prom organizations. Synchronicity Boutique donated over $10,700 to 240 local high schools that purchased dresses from their store in Baltimore.
- Negative impacts of prom
a. Anti-prom/morp
Anti-prom, also known as morp (prom spelled backwards), is a social event often staged by high school students as a protest against, or boycott of, their school's official prom, as an alternative celebration. Other times, it may be an unofficial prom, planned by the students themselves so that it is not under the control of the school.
Some of the more common reasons for the creation of an anti-prom include the desire to curb the large cost of a traditional prom, to listen to music other than that expected to be played at the official prom, to have a smaller, more personal get-together, ones that cannot find a date or have been rejected for a prom date, don't like the food, or have looser and less strict rules than the school's (often relating to dress rules or alcohol consumption). Another common anti-prom is an unofficial dance set up by freshmen and sophomores as they cannot go to prom without a junior or senior.
The attendees of an anti-prom usually disagree with the values of the high school in-crowd who, stereotypically, organize the prom from the preparatory stages to the after-parties. In particular, anti-prom attendees protest what they regard as the vanity, excess, and conformity that the prom culture expects from students. Anti-proms do not follow any prescribed format, catering instead to the varied tastes of the large spectrum of students who feel dissociated from prom culture. Nevertheless, anti-prom participants are generally concerned with arranging social activities that are not only fun and enjoyable, but which also serve as an assertion of solidarity and of the legitimacy of social difference.
In the United States, youth belonging to The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints often attend morps organized through their church or stake. This is true even in the state of Utah, where a substantial percentage of the youth belong to Mormon families. The custom is that the girls can each ask a boy to take them, but the boys cannot ask the girls.
- Segregated prom
A segregated prom refers to the practice of United States high schools, generally located in the Deep South, of holding racially segregated proms for white and black students. The practice spread after these schools were integrated, and persists in a few rural places to the present day. The separate proms have been the subject of frequent (often negative) press coverage, and several films.
2. Homecoming
Homecoming is the tradition of welcoming back former students and members and celebrating an organization's existence. It is a tradition in many high schools, colleges, and churches in the United States and Canada.
The homecoming dance—usually the culminating event of the week (for high schools)—is a formal or informal event, either at the school or an off-campus location. The venue is decorated, and either a disc jockey or band is hired to play music. In many ways, it is a fall prom. Homecoming dances could be informal as well just like standard school dances. At high schools, the homecoming dances are sometimes held in the high school gymnasium or outside in a large field. Homecoming dance attire is less formal than prom. Females generally wear knee-length dresses with their hair down, and males generally wear a tucked-in dress shirt with pants. At prom, females generally wear a more formal gown that goes to the ground with hair up, and males wear suits and tuxedos.
Since most colleges are too large to facilitate a campus-wide dance, these events are usually handled instead by student organizations such as fraternities, sororities, and residential colleges. Because football and alumni events are the focal points of collegiate homecoming, dances often take place during a different week when schedules are more permitting, or not at all.
- Prom and homecoming in popular culture and media
Prom and homecoming dance events have been frequently used in many films, television dramas, and music videos. In Glee, for example, the popular FOX drama had aired three episodes relating to prom. In 2017, MTV aired an original series titled Promposal. MTV's sister channel, Nickelodeon, had some popular dramas with prom/homecoming related episodes: "Prom Wrecker" from 2010-12 drama Victorious starring singers Ariana Grande and Victoria Justice; "Big Time Prom Kings" from 2010-2013 drama Big Time Rush starring Big Time Rush/BTR band members; and most famously "Homecoming" and "Im-Prom-Tu" from 2015-16 drama Make It Pop starring singers Megan Lee, Erika Tham and Louriza Tronco. Netflix series 13 Reasons Why (co-executive produced by pop singer Selena Gomez), which based from the same-titled novel, is mainly focused on prom. The final scene of season seven's final episode of The Goldbergs was taken in the prom night, where Adam Goldberg (Sean Giambrone) is the prom king, while his prom date Brea Bee (Sadie Stanley) is the prom queen; the episode is inspired from the final scene of 1986 film Pretty In Pink.
