St. Louis Culture

The tradition of swapping candy for a joke dates back to just after World War II and can be found in only one other city. But it's not the only way St. Louisans celebrate.

The makeup of the St. Louis region is changing. Here’s what the latest census date tells us about the population and racial demographic trends of the region — and what challenges local leaders must tackle to attract more St. Louisans in the decade to come.

Several St. Louis-based organizations have a lofty goal in mind — make St. Louis the fastest-growing metropolitan area for people born outside of the United States.

St. Louisans don’t say things “the wrong way." We say it the St. Louis way. Here’s a guide on how to sound like a native.

Sauget is one of many French names St. Louisans may botch. The family the town is named after says it one way. Many area natives say it another. Does it matter?

Is there any other regional pizza in the country that elicits as much debate and shame as St. Louis-style? A square-cut, thin-crust pie topped with ooey, gooey Provel cheese, this unconventional pizza is the result of decades of St. Louis ingenuity — and yet, even many locals apologize for their unique creation.

For 75 years, Hispanics from each side of the Mississippi square off in a friendly soccer match that also has chorizo bragging rights on the line.

For eight decades, an egg sandwich has been a beloved part of St. Louis cuisine — but it's more than just a unique dish. It tells the story of immigrants who arrived in St. Louis and “cooked to survive.”

Inspired by the work of Nelly, Chingy and other St. Louis rappers, a group of linguists at New York University began studying the “urr” sound in the mid-2000s. At the time, many linguists still wrongly believed that African-American English sounded the same all across the country — a myth that persisted in the field for decades.

There are dozens of racial, socioeconomic, habitual, communal reasons why the question “So, where did you go to high school?” is repeated again and again.