When Eagan High School opened, almost every student who attended was from Rosemount. There were only about 1,400 students at EHS during the first year. Because most of the students came from Rosemount, it makes sense that EHS inherited many Rosemount traditions during its first years.

As mentioned on Eagan AM, students used to have a homecoming parade. According to Dr. Reikowski, the students would build parade floats and bring them along the track on hay wagons.

Another homecoming tradition was an annual bonfire. The homecoming king and queen would set the wood on fire. Dr. Reikowski says, “Everybody would stand around (the fire) and play music.” However, eventually the students stopped going to the bonfire soon ending the bonfire.

EHS also had “Snow Days,” which also had Snow Days Royalty. Unlike homecoming, this court had royalty from each grade level.

Dr. Reikowski states, “We also had a Snow Days Dance, which was semi-formal. But that went away too.” She also says that EHS used to have a dance each month. These themes would range from Back-to-School, to Homecoming. There were also dances hosted by different clubs.

Another tradition was the Sadie Hawkins dance. This is a dance in which the girls ask the boys, and they would come to the dance wearing matching outfits. A goofier Sadie’s tradition is that a teacher would be a “minister” and “marry” the students. The students would come up with silly vows to say to their new “spouse.”

There also used to be a movie night during homecoming week. Dr. Reikowski adds, “We used to put up a great big screen up behind the building, and show a movie. We would have a big projector out there. If it was rainy, we would need to move it indoors.”

EHS also used to have exchange students speak at graduation. However, this tradition died out because our exchange student program has grown quite a bit over the years, and it would take up a lot of time. EHS used to have around two exchange students a year, but now it has around ten. Another tradition in our school is to keep graduation ceremonies short and sweet.

Many of the traditions that were lost throughout the years ceased to occur because the students just didn’t have an interest in them anymore. And new traditions have been updated or created for students.

Which traditions would you add or bring back?