by Sloane Wehman
The MDJCL congregated at Eleanor Roosevelt High School on December 11th, 2021 to hold our Saturnalia event which included events like Certamen, a moderator Certamen, and a mythology charade game as an ice-breaker! This was the first in-person Certamen the MDJCL has had since our Lupercalia event held at the Gilman School in February of 2020, which is absolutely crazy to think about. Saturnalia was well attended and everyone had a good time singing some Christmas carols in Latin along with MDSCLers who came to the event, competing in Certamen, watching the moderator Certamen, and playing charades! The Certamen was holiday theme-based and a number of questions in both the MDJCL and moderator Certamen asked competitors to sing Christmas carols and identify holiday movies from their Latin titles as well as answer questions about the customs and rituals of Saturnalia. Winners of the novice, intermediate, and advanced levels received the most coveted trophies of small plastic toys such as My Little Pony, Paw Patrol, or Wonder Woman figurines. Io Saturnalia! The MDJCL's next planned event is our state convention happening this spring. Some Maryland schools switched to virtual learning for the month of January, so we are still deciding whether we will be holding our convention in-person or not. Hopefully we will be able to have the Maryland State Convention in-person!
by Jaimin Shah
The two state events that New Jersey has held since December 2021, have been our Winter Certamen and State Cookie Baking Events. The Winter Certamen consisted of Trivia from various topics such as Latin, Greek, and classical civilizations. This virtual event placed the students in breakout rooms in teams, while state and JCL officers were scorekeepers, timers, and spotters. Certamen is a very competitive event but also interactive, allowing students to demonstrate their knowledge of the ancient peoples, languages, and cultures. The main idea of Certamen is not only to challenge each other and to learn to compete as a team but to also have fun and enjoy the time together. Furthermore, the more recent state event was the virtual state baking where we baked easy and quick chocolate chip cookies in less than thirty minutes using a convenient recipe with minimized ingredients and steps. It was an entertaining experience to watch everyone attempt to make their cookies, while we all socialized with one another in the meantime. All in all, the two New Jersey state events held this Winter were more focused on the bonding between all of the different schools that make up our state JCL.
by Alexander Nanda
The OJCL had their Fall state convention a few months back. We had a hybrid and in-person convention where we organized the state into different regions so students could attend even if they were at home. In addition to this, we released the Fall Torch and it contains articles submitted by officers. As for what is coming for the state in future weeks, we have submissions open for the Winter Torch right now for both officers and for students. If you are interested in getting featured in the Winter Torch with an interesting topic relating to the field of classics, please look to the OJCL website!
Spring 2022 · Torch: U.S. · STATE UPDATES
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