When walking the halls this time of year, a song from the musical “Hairspray” comes to mind- “I can hear the bells.” All the buildup with theme days and pep rallies finally culminated into Homecoming this past Friday and nothing tops off the Homecoming experience better than the tradition of the mums.

“I think it’s just something different that’s not something we do at every game,” Legacies coach Holly Lyons said. “There’s always themes for every game which is fun. It’s just something that’s a little bit different that we don’t do all the time- it’s only for homecoming.”

The mum tradition is only found down South, mainly in Texas. The tradition involves a boy and a girl exchanging “mums” (garters for boys) that they made for each other. Girls also often make mums for themselves or friends.

“The mum is a traditional thing for all homecomings that a boy traditionally gives to a girl and a girl gives a garter to a boy,” junior Legacy Rachel Green said. “It’s just a way to show affection and it’s a fun thing for everyone to come together and celebrate.”

Mums consist of a large flower, the actual “mum,” adorned with hanging ribbons and trinkets, and if you want to go all out, teddy bears and flashing lights.

“My favorite part is picking out the class stickers and the different stickers you can put on the ribbon,” Green said. “The ribbon is cool but the trinkets and the different things you can decorate are my favorite. It’s fun to make each one unique every year.”

The mums are an opportunity for the students to express themselves and their personal interests and hobbies.

“I think it makes it special just because everyone’s mums are all different and they’re all decorated the way that they want it to be decorated or they’re decorated for them,” senior Legacy Brogan Edwards said. “So I think it makes it really different and makes everyone their individual self.”

The Legacies dance team are in charge of running a mum store every year after school where they sell the actual mums, ribbons, and trinkets for students making homecoming mums.

“We just thought it would be a really fun and creative way to be involved with our school spirit,” Lyons said. “It’s a fundraiser but we also see it as almost like a service project too. It’s something that we enjoy doing and we feel that we can give back to the school a little bit in that way.”

The Legacies also offer to put together student’s mums for an extra fee and put together their own mums every year, giving them a personal connection to the tradition.

“My mom was actually the mum store chair last year so I got to help make a ton of the mums that we sell here at the Legacy store,” Green said. “She surprised me with a mum so it was super sweet seeing all the decorations.”

Even though Vandegrift hasn’t been around for very long, the students show their pride through their homecoming mums and respect the legacy that graduated vipers have already created.

“I think it’s just a fun way to celebrate the week and remember the students who have been here who graduated from Vandegrift,” Lyons said. “They’re off doing cool stuff now. Our first graduating class, they’re about to graduate from college so we’re going to start seeing some of our alumni start doing some pretty amazing things out there.”