A toga party is a Greco-Roman-themed costume party where attendees wear a garment inspired by ancient Roman clothing (normally made from a bed sheet) with sandals. The costumes, party games, and other entertainment often adhere to the Roman or Greek theme. Toga parties are associated with keg parties and excessive drinking, and attendees typically tend to be college or university students.
First lady Eleanor Roosevelt held a toga party in 1934 to spoof those that compared her husband President Franklin D. Roosevelt to "Caesar". [1] [2]
The earliest known college toga parties took place in the United States in the early 1950s. Toga parties are recorded in the yearbooks for Theta Delta Chi (1952) [3] and the University of Michigan's Acacia fraternity (1953). [4] Another early toga party took place in 1953, when Pomona College students wore togas and ivy wreaths, and brought their dorm mattresses to freshman Mark Neuman's home on Hillcrest Avenue in nearby Flintridge. [5]
For the eight decades before Greek-themed parties became known as "toga parties" in the 1950s, similar parties were generally called "bed sheet and pillow slip" parties (or simply, "pillow slip" parties), in which attendees wrapped themselves in sheets and pillow cases, were regularly held by fraternal orders (like the Masons, Odd Fellows and Elks), civic organizations, and church groups. [6] In 1882, the Terpsichore Society of the Ohio State University held a "pillow slip party" which may arguably be considered the first known college toga party. [7]
Although they are called "toga parties", attendants rarely wear togas, which were intricately draped garments made from large semicircles of fabric, instead wearing articles that more closely resemble chitons.
The Guinness World Record for the largest toga party is 3,700 participants. The event, organized by the University of Queensland Union and the Queensland University of Technology Student Guild, was held on 24 February 2012 at Riverstage in Brisbane, Queensland, Australia. [8]
A toga party was depicted in the 1978 film Animal House , which propelled the ritual into a widespread and enduring practice. Chris Miller, who was one of the writers of Animal House, attended Dartmouth College where the toga party was a popular costume event at major fraternity parties (such as Winter Carnival and Green Key Weekend) during the late 1950s and early 1960s.
A toga party was also briefly described in Tom Wolfe's 1968 story "The Pump House Gang", although somewhat different from the version in the film. Toga parties are also seen in the first episode of season four of the television series Greek and in the fourth episode of Silicon Valley .
"The World's Largest Toga Party" was the tagline of WrestleMania IX.
A cloak is a type of loose garment worn over clothing, mostly but not always as outerwear for outdoor wear, serving the same purpose as an overcoat, protecting the wearer from the weather. It may form part of a uniform. People in many different societies may wear cloaks. Over time cloak designs have changed to match fashion and available textiles.
The toga, a distinctive garment of Ancient Rome, was a roughly semicircular cloth, between 12 and 20 feet in length, draped over the shoulders and around the body. It was usually woven from white wool, and was worn over a tunic. In Roman historical tradition, it is said to have been the favored dress of Romulus, Rome's founder; it was also thought to have originally been worn by both sexes, and by the citizen-military. As Roman women gradually adopted the stola, the toga was recognized as formal wear for male Roman citizens. Women found guilty of adultery and women engaged in prostitution might have provided the main exceptions to this rule.
The stola was the traditional garment of Roman women, corresponding to the toga that was worn by men. It was also called vestis longa in Latin literary sources, pointing to its length.
Beta Theta Pi (ΒΘΠ), commonly known as Beta, is a North American social fraternity that was founded in 1839 at Miami University in Oxford, Ohio. One of North America's oldest fraternities, as of August 2023 it consists of 150 active chapters and colonies in the United States and Canada. More than 223,000 members have been initiated worldwide and there are currently around 9,500 undergraduate members. Beta Theta Pi is the oldest of the three fraternities that formed the Miami Triad, along with Phi Delta Theta and Sigma Chi.
Lambda Theta Phi Latin Fraternity, Inc. (ΛΘΦ) is a Latino non-profit social fraternity in the United States with 148 undergraduate chapters and 33 alumni associations.
The North American Interfraternity Conference is an association of intercollegiate men's social fraternities that was formally organized in 1910. However, it began at a meeting at the University Club of New York on November 27, 1909. The power of the organization rests in a House of Delegates in which each member fraternity is represented by a single delegate. However, the group's executive and administrative powers are vested in an elected board of directors consisting of nine volunteers from various NIC fraternities. Headquartered in Indianapolis, Indiana, the NIC has a small professional staff.
Phi Kappa Theta (ΦΚΘ), commonly known as Phi Kap, is a national social fraternity that has over 35 active chapters and colonies at universities across 21 U.S. states. The fraternity was founded on April 29, 1959, at Ohio State University in Columbus, Ohio, with the agreed-upon merger of two older Catholic fraternities, Phi Kappa and Theta Kappa Phi. Phi Kappa was founded exactly 70 years prior in 1889 at Brown University in Providence, Rhode Island, while Theta Kappa Phi was founded later in October 1919 at Lehigh University in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania.
Dartmouth College is host to many fraternities and sororities, and a significant percentage of the undergraduate student body is active in Greek life. In the fall of 2022, 35 percent of male students belong to a fraternity and 36 percent of students belong to a sorority. Greek organizations at Dartmouth provide both social and residential opportunities for students and are the only single-sex residential option on campus. Greek organizations at Dartmouth do not provide dining options, as regular meal service has been banned in Greek houses since 1909.
The blanket sleeper is a type of especially warm sleeper or footie pajama worn primarily during the winter in the United States and Canada. The garment is worn especially by young children.
Acacia Fraternity, Inc. is a social fraternity founded in 1904 at the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor, Michigan. The fraternity has 27 active chapters and 3 associate chapters throughout Canada and the United States. The fraternity was founded by undergraduate Freemasons and was originally open only to men who had taken the Masonic obligations, but in 1933 the International Conclave elected to dispense with the Masonic prerequisite. In 1988, at the 45th Conclave, the fraternity elected to use "International" rather than "National" when referring to the fraternity.
A himation was a type of clothing, a mantle or wrap worn by ancient Greek men and women from the Archaic period through the Hellenistic period. It was usually worn over a chiton and/or peplos, but was made of heavier drape and played the role of a cloak or shawl. When the himation was used alone, without a chiton, it served both as a chiton and as a cloak. The himation was markedly less voluminous than the Roman toga. Many vase paintings depict women wearing a himation as a veil covering their faces.
The Mother of Fraternities usually refers to Union College in Schenectady, New York, U.S., or Miami University in Oxford, Ohio, U.S, both of which founded many early collegiate fraternities.
Sigma Theta Epsilon (ΣΘΕ) was an American interdenominational national Christian fraternal organization that operated from 1925 to 2022. It had 47 chapters across the United States.
Clothing in ancient Rome generally comprised a short-sleeved or sleeveless, knee-length tunic for men and boys, and a longer, usually sleeved tunic for women and girls. On formal occasions, adult male citizens could wear a woolen toga, draped over their tunic, and married citizen women wore a woolen mantle, known as a palla, over a stola, a simple, long-sleeved, voluminous garment that modestly hung to cover the feet. Clothing, footwear and accoutrements identified gender, status, rank and social class. This was especially apparent in the distinctive, privileged official dress of magistrates, priesthoods and the military.
The preservation of fabric fibers and leathers allows for insights into the attire of ancient societies. The clothing used in the ancient world reflects the technologies that these peoples mastered. In many cultures, clothing indicated the social status of various members of society.
The North American fraternity and sorority system began with students who wanted to meet secretly, usually for discussions and debates not thought appropriate by the faculty of their schools. Today they are used as social, professional, and honorary groups that promote varied combinations of community service, leadership, and academic achievement.
The term Triad is used to designate certain historic groupings of seminal college fraternities in North America.
In North America, fraternities and sororities are social clubs at colleges and universities. They are sometimes collectively referred to as Greek life or Greek-letter organizations, as well as collegiate fraternities or collegiate sororities to differentiate them from traditional not (exclusively) university-based fraternal organizations and fraternal orders that have historically acted as friendly societies or benefit societies to certain groups unlike the ones mentioned in this article.
Delta Beta Phi (ΔΒΦ), also called Delta Beta Phi Society, was a small national men's fraternity founded at Cornell University in 1878. The national disbanded in 1882 but was briefly restored through the 1920s.
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