Saturnalia
To celebrate the holiday season in true Roman style, our latin club’s executive board decided to throw a little pre-finals Saturnalia party for all latin club members to attend. We decided that our peers could certainly use a little fun to ease the stress of the end of the semester, and thought, “What better time than Christmas time to spread a little cheer?”
The event was planned by our executive board during a morning meeting shortly after Thanksgiving, and was designed to be a potluck in which attendees could bring a food to share with others. We assigned salty foods to the freshmen, sweets to the sophomores, drinks to the juniors, and finally utensils, cups, napkins, etc. to the seniors. Several students brought tasty homemade goodies to eat, and it was loads of chaos and fun running around the school trying to find microwaves to heat them up. We decided that we would plan games to play, and also picked a movie for us to watch: “The Polar Express”. After we had gone over all the details and assigned different jobs regarding preparations for the party, we also decided it would be fun to play secret santa and purchase gifts in secret for another board member whom we chose at random to exchange at the Saturnalia party.
Soon the day of the party arrived, and the latin room was thoroughly decorated from top to bottom with Christmas tree lights and paper snow flakes. Right after school, students in their pajamas began arriving with food and gifts. Once all the names of attendees were recorded and each of the students filled their plates with goodies, the executive board members exhanged their gifts for secret santa. There was also a white elephant gift exchange, which all latin club members could participate in. A noteable gift given by one of our board members, Emily Green, was an autographed photo of herself. Her own autograph, of course. These fun gift exchanges served as a fantastic way to get our latin club members more familiar with each other, and helped the board members in particular get to know a little bit more about their peers’ lives outside of latin club.
Shortly after we completed the gift exchanges, the party divided into two teams to participate in a Christmas carol game. Each team would have a chance to listen to a short clip of a random Christmas song, and they would be awarded a point if they could correctly name the song, and a second point requiring a little more involvement for singing the song. The fun Christmassy atmosphere, along with the stench of intense (but good-natured) competition filled the air and brought together the congregation of our beloved latin nerds all the more. Though they did not prove to “onesie” (you’ll be able to tell who they are) proved they were certainly very Christmas carol savvy and won the game by a landslide.
After the students had settled down, we ended the party with the movie “The Polar Express”, which was surprisingly way more creepy than we remembered. Although the strangely lifelike animation style was a little unnerving, the movie served as a perfect end to a great party, which marks another Dacula Junior Classical League success.
DACULA
Hannah Links
12,13, 20: Milton Bowling Social; 14-17: Blessed Trinity Hercules and Hot Chocolate; 18: Webb Bridge Middle School; 19, 22: Parkview Freshman Recruitment; 21: North Gwinnett State Convention