History of the Prom.

Prom party's have only become prevalent in the UK since the early 2000's thanks to Hollywood teen movies such as Mean Girls, Clueless, High School Musical to name but a few.

Nowadays Proms all about celebrating the end of senior school, letting off steam after all the exam swotting and possibly saying good bye to old friends as pupils move onto different 6th forms, colleges and possibly University but that wasn't always quite the case.

The word prom is a shortened form of the word promenade, which in verb form means "take a leisurely public walk, ride, or drive so as to meet or be seen by others". School proms are slightly more exciting than a leisurely walk and thereby require slightly more finery than a pair of tracksuit joggers, that being said if that is your fancy who are we to disagree

The history of the The "Prom party" started in colleges in the American northeast in the early 20th Century, based on debutante balls ( where young women were introduced to "polite society" and also eligible men) but for those that were not in quite the highest societies.

They gradually altered in the 30's and 40's to being in schools but with the same idea of girls being offered into society and meeting eligible men, by the 1950's they were the end of year party for the students at High School and not so much Colleges and seem to have been (for some students) a more celebratory party than the more officious affairs of previous decades.

But not all were able to enjoy or even attend the School Prom Party even throughout the 60's, 70's, 80's and 90's still racial and LGBTQ inclusion in American Proms was still a serious issue so it was not until the 2000's that Proms became the truly celebratory end of school parties that students can now fully enjoy.

Many other countries have similar events called "formals", "Grads", "debutante balls" or "debs " and in Poland students organise a  "studniówka" but here in the UK we have the School prom.

Of course as times move on so does The Prom, transport can now be a limousine or helicopter, dresses can cost thousands of pounds and long term partners can create exciting ways to propose the prom date. However you celebrate your School Prom make sure it is with the heart, true to yourself and with the best of intentions, but most of all enjoy it and have fun.