On Saturday nights in the final weeks of September into all of October, high school students swarm the Lincoln Memorial and the Washington Monument to take homecoming pictures. Homecoming is an annual school celebration welcoming students back for the upcoming school year through spirit days, pep rallies, a football game, and a dance.

Students from schools across MoCo take pictures by the monuments followed by dinner and a gathering. Homecoming takes place in schools all over the U.S., but since not every state borders the nation’s capital, where is their popular homecoming picture spot? Do people attend the dance?

Point of comparison: Maryland

This school’s homecoming tends to have a slight difference from the homecomings through the rest of MoCo with a Friday night “Gloco” after the football game as the only school-wide celebration offered out of school hours. With no formal dance on Saturday night, homecoming includes venturing to D.C. for pictures by the monuments and going out to dinner, followed by a gathering or after party of sorts at someone’s house. Resembling the well-known, typical homecoming, this school holds a spirit week full of dress-up days, school-wide events and games surrounding the year’s Gloco theme, leading up to the annual pep rally and blackout-themed homecoming football game. “I think Gloco is really nice and I prefer it over a formal dance because I like getting to go out to dinner and take nice pictures with my friends on Saturday,” sophomore Justice Key said.

Just like this school having Gloco rather than a homecoming dance, schools across the country follow their own traditions. How do they compare to this school?

East Coast: North Carolina

Just a few hours south of Rockville, Riverside High School in Durham follows a similar homecoming schedule for Saturday when compared to Maryland schools. According to Riverside junior Sage Weiss, her school hosts a themed formal dance on Saturday night, but out of 1,800 students, only about 200 students, including herself, attended their dance on Oct. 18. Of the students who did attend, most stayed for a short time before opting for a hang-out at someone’s house.

Aside from the actual dance, students will carpool, unlike D.C. party buses, to go out as a group for dinner before the dance. Almost equivalent to the monuments though, NC students have their own favored photo spot: Duke Gardens. The 55-acre public botanic garden located on the Duke University campus is large enough to accommodate multiple groups of any size of teens taking their homecoming pictures with gorgeous native plants decorating the background.

Mid-west: Colorado

Moving along west, Grandview High School in Aurora brings the spirit for a tradition-filled homecoming. Similar to this school’s Gloco banner and themed mannequins in the Commons, before the awaited homecoming week even begins, Grandview student leadership covers the school walls in festive paper designs to encourage student engagement throughout their homecoming week spirit days. “One really fun tradition for Hoco is when you’re a senior, instead of having a normal homecoming dress, you dress up in a cute costume, usually with a date of friends,” Grandview sophomore Maddie Silver said.

As for the Saturday night festivities, with gorgeous views of the Rocky Mountains and beautiful spots such as Red Rocks, Colorado holds superb locations to get the ultimate Homecoming pictures. According to Silver, the formal dance is attended by mostly underclassmen and the student leadership who planned it. Aside from the dance, groups cater or go out to dinner. Students take advantage of Colorado’s scenery by taking their photos anywhere from Country Clubs, parks or backyards. Unlike this area, there is not one directly popular place where everyone goes to take photos.

South: Texas

Everything’s bigger in Texas, most definitely including homecoming. The sentiment “no one loves Texas more than Texas” holds true with the deep homecoming traditions that Texans have. A classic, unique-to-Texas homecoming tradition is the making and wearing of mums: a large, elaborate, decorated corsage. Given to girls by guys in trade for a garter, a smaller, arm-worn mum, the iconic Texan decoration hangs from the chest and is made up of ribbons, bells, boas and other elaborate designs. “For homecoming, we have a big football game with mums that we wear at school and the game,” Vista Ridge sophomore Alex Weil said.

Homecoming at Vista Ridge High School in Cedar Park takes place over two months after the start of school, with their first day being Aug. 13 and homecoming taking place on Oct. 18. After two months of school being complete, students might argue that homecoming should have already taken place, while some enjoy the extra time to decide on their plans. Festivities include a morning brunch, taking pictures in a backyard, park, or in downtown Austin, having dinner with a group, and ending with a themed after party back at someone’s house. Similar to getting to the monuments in D.C., students may take party buses in Austin to get from location-to-location on their homecoming night. “[Vista Ridge] does have a formal dance, but I don’t go. Only the freshmen go,” Weil said.

West Coast: California

When taking homecoming photos in D.C., students are seen shivering and covering up in dress coats, but that isn’t a worry for Menlo-Atherton students in Atherton, just outside of San Jose. On Saturday night, students gather to get ready and take photos together in someone’s backyard before the dance. “In my opinion, getting ready for homecoming is more fun than the actual dance,” Menlo-Atherton sophomore Farah Ghajar said.

In the nature of tradition, Menlo-Atherton holds a formal dance, and unlike other public schools, students are prohibited from leaving from their arrival at 7 p.m. until after 9 p.m.. Taking advantage of the beautiful weather, the dance is open gym, being partially outside. After 9 p.m., students leave and go to after parties, meeting up with students who steered away from the dance. There is no structured group dinner, different from other states, instead the hosting house will provide food or students will stop at West Coast delicacy, In-N-Out burger.

Similar to Texas, Menlo-Atherton’s homecoming took place over two months after schools welcomed students back for the school year. Unlike Texas, school spirit and energy tends to lack at the homecoming football game. According to Albert Samaha in a Washington Post article back in 2022, “Roughly 14,000 fewer boys in California played high school football in 2022 than a decade earlier — a decline of about 13 percent when adjusted for public school enrollment,” Samaha said.