Friday is homecoming. People are getting ready for the big game and the dance. The halls will be flooded with students showing off their mums and garters, but what do the mums and garters mean? How did the tradition of mums and garters come about?

“They started at Baylor University in the early 1900s to 1930s,” floral design teacher Courtney Weeks said. “It was a fresh chrysanthemum flower, and it was actually worn by moms of college students, and it just had the flower and some ribbons on it and then it’s just like evolved into every year it just keeps getting bigger and bigger, and now, using a real flower is not really possible because of how much stuff we add to it.”

Although Texas started the tradition, states such as Oklahoma, Louisiana and Alabama have adopted the tradition for their homecoming games as well.

“Mums are really a southern thing. It’s not really like a thing that’s well known in other states,” Weeks said. “It might be known in other states but they don’t do it as big as we do it here.”

Mums have grown so much in the years since the tradition began, and now you can make a mum for anyone you want too.

“It’s to show your affection between you and your homecoming date,” Weeks said. “Although, now, a lot of people make them for friends and family members, but originally, that’s what it was used for–it was used as a token of affection.”

Aside from receiving a mum, one of the best parts about mums is getting to make and customize your own mum or a mum for someone else. The decorations can be anything you want. It can be something that you are interested in or anything that has meaning to you.

“I don’t know why seniors wear all white, but it’s just like the tradition that seniors do all white to make them stand out and be different primarily,” Weeks said. “Freshmen, sophomores and juniors will have school colors, but since mums have gotten so big, a lot of people put things that they are interested in such as their favorite color or just things that symbolize them.”