The formal dance where students act not-so-formal and pay a lot of money on their hair, dresses, tuxes, and tickets is also known as prom.

Prom is short for promenade, which is a procession of guests at a formal event. Prom was originally used during the 1800s at northeastern universities.

Proms back then consisted of the senior class toward the end of their academic year gathering in their Sunday best and consuming light refreshments.

However, as time went on, the prom was pushed toward the high school students.

At Kearsley, only seniors can attend prom, unless an underclassman is invited. Many other schools, like Davsion, have opened prom to juniors and seniors.

The purpose of prom was to teach students how to socialize at a formal event. Prom teaches them how to behave, talk, walk, and dress appropriately. These skills were then supposed to be used in the world outside of school.

Students like senior Chase Bailey believe the purpose of prom is to spend one last night with their classmates before they all graduate.

“I believe that prom is a way to get closure for high school friends,” Bailey said.

Proms were originally held in school gymnasiums, but in the 1950s schools began to have them in country clubs and banquet halls.

In 1975, President Gerald Ford’s daughter, Susan, held her high school’s senior prom at the White House.

Because the venues were fancier and more expensive, the dresses had to be too. That is when the big price tags on dresses came into style as well as corsages on the girls’ wrists.

It was not until 2001 that the first prom proposal would come out, according to the Washington Post. Students in Dallas began to ask their dates to prom over loudspeakers in school by singing adapted lyrics of famous songs.

In 2002, an episode of Laguna Beach aired an episode where the male characters tried asking the girls to prom in extravagant ways.

Prom proposals begin to go viral in 2006, dominating YouTube. As of April of last year, there are more than 40,000 videos tagged “promposal,” and an additional 900,000 tagged “prom proposal” or “ask cute” on YouTube.

Nobody knows when the term “promposal” was first used, but the term first appeared in the media in 2011.

Prom has changed a great deal over the past few hundred years, with the arrival of big venues, big dresses, and big prom proposals.

“This will be a prom I will never forget,” Bailey said. “Proms can only get better from here.”