It's a truly important event for which boys and girls prepare for months to be perfect that evening.
During the dance, which often takes place in the festively decorated school gym, a Prom King and a Prom Queen are elected with a crown and a sash for both, an honorific title which is assigned by vote by the school students themselves to the boy and to the most popular girl also based on their level of participation in school activities.
The prom is seen as an important event for students, an official entry into what can be considered adulthood. Tradition, in fact, dictates that for that evening for the first time the kids can take the car after sunset or rent a limousine, they can have their first date with the boy or girl they are dating with the consent of their parents, so how they can wear a formal and important dress.
Prom is particularly felt among the girls who, a few months before the said event, go shopping and searching for the perfect dress, which for girls is strictly a long cocktail dress.
All colors seem to be allowed: black, pink, purple, lilac and even white but the only rule is that the outfit must be quite impressive, bright and flashy. And with the dress they think about the hairdo, the makeup, the shoes and the bunch of flowers to attach to the wrist called corsages (which they usually receive as a gift from their prom ‘date’ when he comes get them to go to the event).
If you have ever watched an American teen comedy movie, you know what I’m talking about for sure!
The central event of the prom is the evening dance in which all the students take part; but the celebrations last a whole day and each group of friends organizes various pre-prom and post-prom activities with or without classmates.
In the morning the teens start getting ready very early (again especially the girls) by going to the hairdresser’s or the barber’s, getting nails done and sometimes getting professional make up too…the prom prep really does look like the preparations for a wedding.
All such preps take place under the guidance of the parents who, like at a real wedding, are more agitated than their children.
Finally ready, the teens leave for the location chosen for the ritual photos (each group in the event planning phase chooses the place deemed most suitable) and they start with all the possible combinations: group photos, individual pictures, photos with their best friend, with their date and loads of selfies of course too.
The locations are varied and not limited to waterfalls, swimming pools, flower gardens and so forth...
After approximately two hours of shooting, they finally have dinner at the event (normally a buffet) and then the dancing begins. They dance and stay together, they talk, they joke and once the dance is over they continue on with more entertainment throughout the night.
This is a special day for American teenagers because, especially in countryside America, there aren't many opportunities to show off elegant clothes and participate with friends in a party that lasts almost twenty-four hours.
They told me that in Texas prom is very much felt because High Schools are very proud of their students and communities here are particularly a close knit.
