Letting the good times roll in ancient times

The wedding at Cana without a doubt. I have always been utterly amused at that particular story. Jesus didn't really want to do it, and had to be nagged by his mother. Secondly, it was the best wine at the reception, much to the chagrin of the caterers! Lessons are of course to be learned, honor thy father and mother, whatever you do, do your best. Still, as the mother of 3 sons, what I wouldn't have given to be a fly on the wall when Mary asked him to save the hosts from embarrassment!

Do we give better parties? Certainly we have more conveniences, yet at least in the examples cited it seems to have been celebrations just for the joy of it. Somehow it seems to me that often the events I go to
have other agendas fund raising, networking, a way to simply pay back what we perceive to be obligations to others. Maybe it's just the times, but fun for fun's sake does seem hard come by.

After reading Harry Tutledove I have always wanted to attend a Greek symposium. I would water the wine 1 to 1 ! That's a party!

I guess I'm torn, I would most likely go to Cana to meet Jesus, but then tuck over to my Roman neighbors' wild party when no one was looking.

May have wanted to mention, that Chicha beer, is created by chewing up the fruit/tuber (whatever that "brand" is made of), and spitting it into a container to ferment. Modern Chicha is often made from corn.

Though I think I was at a frat party once that had something similar... :-/

I am hangin' with Russell!

I'll go where ever the sex party is.

I'm going where ever the sex party is.

I don't think anything in the past can hold a candle to Las Vegas. That place has been a constant party since the 1950s.

I'd have enjoyed the opening celebration of the Roman Colosseum. One hundred days of debauchery and slaughter. Thousands of animals and people slaughtered fantastically. The Romans put their money to good use. I heard they got that cash from the sacking of Israel...

I would like to be among the American GI's that liberated Paris in WW2. Now that would be a party!!!

Well I will bet that in those days they did not hand out tickets for riding your horse wrong or take you to court for drunk in public we police way too much to say that we know how to party. Now those guys in the old days knew how to git r done for sure! Which way to the orgy?

I'm all for the Celts Beltaine ritual. Sex by a roaring fire in the woods.

Experiencing Greek theater with a wineskin/cheese/bread picnic dinner would be the bomb. Was the audience boisterous at times like those watching Shakespeare's plays almost 2,000 years later at the Globe?

The Romans definitely knew how to party, and that's where I'd hang. However, let's note that most of the festivities described in this article were for the elite classes of royalty, politicians, etc. The common guys probably settled for fermented berries, weed, or whatever, in a much less celebrated style.

Well, as a female I think I'd hang with the Egyptians. They seemed to respect their women and allow them to come to the parties. Also, I get a much worse headache from wine than I ever do from organic beer! :-) Although catching a play in Greece would be a close second.

As for who has the best parties? On the deck in the Rockies still out does anything Vegas or Rome ever saw, and nobody regrets anything. Scares the bears a bit sometimes, though.

Move the J.c. freaks over! The best party is a Roman Orgy with lots of slave girls that goes on for days!

The Pharoh's may have been tyrants but the did let their "people go!" I would be there in a heart beat so long as I wasn't part of the slave gig! It would be sweet to find out how those giant pyramids were really built.

I would definately hang out at a roman orgy ! food , drink and sex ......... what else would you need ??

Many may think this a stupid question (sorry), but how were our ancestors able to 'drink the water' and not get sick? When I think of them drinking 'wine' - I don't think of it as necessairly a way to get drunk, but more of a drink to quench their thirst and feed their bodies. This is probably a 101 class I never got to take.

I'd want to attend Cana.
I've long had my own theory of the water into wine gag.
Since the Greeks almost always heavily diluted their wine and there are stories of the wine of Alexander requiring fifty parts water to one part wine I figure that heavily spiced and lightly drugged wines were fairly common.
I'd have to google a bit to refresh my memory on this but I seem to remember something about wine with Herbal additives being served in Palestine around that time.

Party goers well lit up by hours of knocking back pure product, especially people not used to drinking much if any on a daily basis, would have begun to get dehydrated and a bit overcome.
Fresh water poured into the jars which were already permeated with alcohol would be rapidly chilled to a few degrees lower than otherwise, pick up the remaining flavoring , and carry the scent which is the real carrier of taste once the taste buds of the tongue are spoiled.
It cut the dust and eliminated any cloying aftertaste.

An old bartender's trick is to serve the good stuff early, after the guests are well into their cups lower grade drink tastes as good or better.

The party goers didn't need any more alcohol, they were already well on their way. Re-hydraytion was what they needed. They replaced lost moisture, got a good sweat going to cool down and felt an immediate lift in spirits.

Most of the Miracles of the New Testament are easy to explain, I have my own reasons for belief so I choose to follow ST Augustine's lead "Miracles are not against Nature, they are only against what we know of nature".

Hands down it would be the Greek Elusinian Mystery rites for me....women-only. Not that I wouldn't like to party with those gorgeous Greek men. But everything I've read only hints at what went on and no one has written it down. So the only way to know for sure is to go back and see for oneself.

Which way to the time machine?

A Roman party beyond a shadow of a doubt.

Today Bourbon Street, New Orleans has a pretty wild bash every night.

How about Times Square in New York on V-E or V-J days- ? those pictures in Life magazine looked like an amazing time was being had

How about V-E or V-J days at Times Square in New York? The pics in those old issues of Life looked like an amazing time was being had

I am an American but I've always had the deepest respect for the ancient Greeks. The invention of true democracy is, in my mind, one of the human race's greatest achievements...and I bet their parties were out of this world! Having been a teenager in the late Sixties, I know a few things about partying. To have been at a Dionysian festival then, intoxicated but talking to others about great ideas
(while enjoying the feminine beauties around me, intellectually and otherwise), would just about have knocked me out. What a wonderful thing to think about this weekend. Hey, isn't that Socrates over there passed out near the largest jug? Right on!