Most high schools in America celebrate Homecoming, but its origins are a mystery to many students.

Junior Katie Cameron said, “I don’t really know anything about why we have Homecoming. It’s for the football team and their home games, right?”

Though the official origins of homecoming are largely contested, the celebration has been around since the nineteenth century, marking it as an important part of American high school and college life.

Homecoming serves as a way for alumni of a high school or college to return to their alma mater, and it is defined by at least one annual event: a parade, a “spirit week,” a dance or a football game. Typically, alumni return to watch the football game as their former school challenges a rival.

According to History.com, the first instance of a school ordaining a celebration where alumni were invited to “come home” was in the 1870’s, when Harvard and Yale University faced off in one of the first football games. Both the tradition and the rivalry has remained at the two schools.

However, the University of Missouri is the commonly accepted original school to begin a Homecoming celebration. In 1911 the coach of the university’s football team called for alumni to return to the school to commend the new location of the school’s football field.

The celebration of Homecoming became a permanent tradition in American schools in the 1920s when more and more schools began adopting the practice.