What other countries have school proms (or equivalents)? (rental car, rent)
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A school prom is a formal, school-sponsored dance that usually takes place in the junior (11th grade, age 16-17) and senior (12th grade, age 17-18) years of high school. Students usually attend in couples.
For many students, especially girls, prom is a big event. For a typical prom today, girls will get their hair done by a professional stylist, wear a special dress (which can be very expensive), etc., while a male will rent a tuxedo.
Often a stretch limo, today typically a Stretch Hummer, is used to haul individual prom parties (which usually consist of 10-20 friends) around. The first stop is usually a restaurant, and then it will invariably go to the main event, which begins with a "grand march".
At the "grand march", couples march as their name is called out by an emcee. Parents and family are in attendance at these.
Then, parents leave and students dance and socialize.
The prom ends at a set time (usually midnight - 2 am), and after-prom parties are notorious places for alcohol consumption and loss of virginity. As a result, some schools have elected to have chemical-free after-prom parties of their own.
Proms are often ridiculously expensive events, sometimes costing over $1,000 for the dress, boots, limo, etc.
I went to school in Quebec and when we graduated from High School in grade 11 we had the grad dance, which was clearly influenced by the American Proms we saw on TV. We dressed in tux and gown, had a dinner and dance at a hotel ball room, and there was a booze filled after party at a club later on. So in this sense it was like a prom, but we lacked many of the typical American traditions. There was no grand march, there were no parents present for any part of the event, the dinner was at the main event and was given more prominence than the dancing which a minority of students participated in, and most of the real partying happened later on. I can't tell you how normalized this was across Canada, especially in provinces with a grade twelve, but it was my own personal experience. I do get the impression it is a much more important institution in the United States and in many ways Prom, with its special traditions, seems like it is a uniquely American experience.
I had to explain the concept of the prom to southern Europeans, so I think (know) that countries bordering the Mediterranean do not have them. In fact, they are astounded at the rah-rah level of American high schools (the clubs, the sports, and even the yearbooks). It would be interesting to see how northern Europeans chime in on this topic.
I think only crazy people would spend up to $1000 dollars. There's no reason to say 1000 is an average price, that's just for nutso people who want to go over the top.
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So you have a 'junior' prom and a 'senior' prom in America?
We have a school ball here which is a pretty big deal, although it's usually held at hotel or something not the school gymnasium lol. I didn't go to mine, that was how unsociable I was.
A school prom is a formal, school-sponsored dance that usually takes place in the junior (11th grade, age 16-17) and senior (12th grade, age 17-18) years of high school. Students usually attend in couples.
For many students, especially girls, prom is a big event. For a typical prom today, girls will get their hair done by a professional stylist, wear a special dress (which can be very expensive), etc., while a male will rent a tuxedo.
Often a stretch limo, today typically a Stretch Hummer, is used to haul individual prom parties (which usually consist of 10-20 friends) around. The first stop is usually a restaurant, and then it will invariably go to the main event, which begins with a "grand march".
At the "grand march", couples march as their name is called out by an emcee. Parents and family are in attendance at these.
Then, parents leave and students dance and socialize.
The prom ends at a set time (usually midnight - 2 am), and after-prom parties are notorious places for alcohol consumption and loss of virginity. As a result, some schools have elected to have chemical-free after-prom parties of their own.
Proms are often ridiculously expensive events, sometimes costing over $1,000 for the dress, boots, limo, etc.
As an American who graduated HS in 1956, I was appalled by the description in this posting, and a similar one on proms in another forum. Good G*d Almighty, talk about a degenerate, indulgent, wasteful society....sounds like something the Russian nouveau riche would indulge in.
At our senior ball, the girls did dress up in formal gowns...more on the order of what bridesmaids wore at weddings, and those girls who had been bridesmaids or been in some Masonic Eastern Star events and already had these dresses wore them again. Some girls did have to buy their very first formal dress, but certainly at nothing hugely expensive.
Guys rented a tux. Kids drove in their own or parental cars. It was over at midnight, I think.
Some of us went to a nightclub in a city about forty miles away, and drank....but then anyone who drank on Sr. Ball night had already been drinking, the drinking age was 18. Ditto for loss of virginity, many couples who were "going steady" were already having sex. So glad to have been a teenager back then...everything teenagers do currently seems to be over the top in how organized it is, and how costly.
However, I live in Portugal now and just showed the OP to a friend here..........well, if you think my reaction is a bit extreme, be grateful you couldn't hear hers.
In short, she said there is no Jr. prom or Sr. ball tradition in the local high schools. On the other hand, the drinking age is low here, and teenagers have already been going to their own clubs downtown - being adult, putting on a show is something they are already used to in some respects, and they do not all graduate at the same time necessarily, even though they are in the same grade.
Interestingly my friend commented that while no Portuguese parent in town would ever consider throwing that kind of money around on dresses, limos, etc., many parents do give large extended family parties when a kid graduates (inviting their kid's best friends as well) and those with the money will have this dinner in a restaurant, while most families do it in their home.
Some British schools have one these days but as far as I'm aware it's much less formalised than in the US, and I don't think you necessarily go in couples - it's more like a well-dressed ****-up. My school didn't have anything like that though and probably still doesn't - I can't quite see a US-style prom working that well in an all-boys' school
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