Blue and pink shades painting the Autumn sky, vibrantly dull shades of brown, orange and red leaves falling from the trees, a time to pull out your sweaters, cheer on the football team, and prepare for the dance. That’s right, it’s fall, which means… Homecoming.

Homecoming is celebrated across most of the United States. When people think of Homecoming some people’s mind will go to rival football games, others will go to the homecoming dance, but for Texans, there’s one other thing that might be on the top of your mind; the mum.

Texas is the one of the few states in the U.S. that wears them. According to Briana Edwards, the history of the Texas homecoming mum and how the tradition came to be, the tradition was inspired originally in 1911 by the University of Missouri, but later spread to Texas. Over the years however, the tradition has spread back into other states such as Louisiana and Oklahoma.

While there is no doubt that people have been making, wearing and buying mums for years, there isn’t one set year people agree on being the start of the tradition. While the start Date can’t be agreed upon, one thing can, over the years the mum tradition has grown, changed, and become more extravagant over the years.

According to Monique Welch’s article, Why are Texas homecoming mums so huge? Here’s how the tradition came to be, originally mums were smaller, the flowers on them were small and while there was some ribbon it wasn’t close to as much there is today.

Today, people rush to stores and florists to buy, order, or even create their own mum, turning mums into artistic time capsules that capture parts of their personality, activities and interests. However, it seems that things weren’t always this way.

According to Dallasnews administrators, Today’s mum: big on bling, but no boyfriend required, mums used to be worn by people that had significant others.

Though the tradition has changed over the years it’s still a big part of the school spirit embedded in the history of homecoming in Texas.

Sources:

Houston Chronicle

SJSU

Texas Standard I

Texas Standard II

Dallas News