As homecoming fades into the past, the memories made are slowly forgotten. However, Southern girls have a single keepsake, a mum, to hang on their wall and remind them of the adventures they had while wearing it around school for a day. While mums aren’t hurting anybody, the simple idea of a small token from a boy to a girl is getting blown out of proportion.
When the homecoming tradition began in the early 1900s, schools in southern states encouraged young men to give their special lady a flower to wear to the homecoming game. A chrysanthemum was bought at a flower shop and a couple ribbons or charms were attached to it. Now, the name is shortened to ‘mum’ but somehow the objects themselves have swelled and stretched to a gargantuan accessory. Ribbons trail to the floor, and huge flowers nearly cover entire torsos. Girls look impractical wearing a mum that is bigger than they are.
Not only has the mum itself grown, but the cost to make one nowadays is much too steep. According to a Garden Design Blogger, Claire Lui, the original mums would cost approximately three dollars. Now it could set a guy back about 200 to 400 dollars. This is money spent so that girls can wear their mum for a day, and promptly lose appreciation for it.
With all the added bells and whistles, mums have literally become very noisy. Walking down the halls on homecoming day, the chorus of jingling, swishing, and clanging is nearly deafening. It is unavoidable for girls to even write in class without disturbing their delicate adornment.
While mums were tasteful decades ago, modern mums have decreased in classiness and it’s gotten out of hand. Many people think the gesture is sweet, but there are endless alternatives to buying or making a girl a mum. Boys could buy her a nice present instead, or a box of chocolates and genuine flowers. If you really love her enough to spend that much money on her, you might as well give her a diamond ring!
