I found this in my Comm 114 reading. The interesting way of describing a well-known happening caught my attention. Enjoi

Consider what is an important rite of passage for many people. On a designated spring night, those in late adolescence dress in a style of clothing radically different from their regular dress. Families will even undergo financial hardship to provide the appropriate costume for their offspring. The participants are paired off male-female. They couples eat a sumptuous meal together but not in their residences. After the meal, they go to a site selected beforehand. Between the meal and the site, they may change costumes. Their transportation should be in the most impressive vehicle available, preferably an expensive rented one. The chosen site is a large room, decorated beforehand, in a public building. At the site, loud music is played and they spend the majority of their time engaging in two forms of dance: they either clench together or independent of each other, improvise free style body movements.

After a number of hours of this activity, the large gathering breaks up. Smaller groups assemble at residences or less formal settings than the original dancing site. They again change costumes. In place of their formal attire, they put on play clothes and play games and continue dancing. They are not allowed to sleep for the remainder of the night. In the morning, they are fed breakfast and they return to their residences. The event signals their anticipated freedom from their homes. Through a mock marriage which lasts only the one night and the breaking of curfews, a last reminder of childhood, they indicate their readiness to participate in the adult realm.

A strange ritual from an exotic land? Only if you perceive your home town and high school to be exotic and the annual senior prom to be strange.