On a chilly Friday night in November, a group of boys began preparing for a dance party. They grabbed hall relics, hung Christmas lights, set up a fog machine, and wrapped bedsheets to look like togas. A playlist was made, a location was set, and it was time for the traditional Catacombs Toga Party to commence.
“When 9:00 PM rolls around, and the people start coming in by the tens and hundreds, they can rest assured that Toga is not just a dance party, it is a Catacombs experience that will touch on all the senses,” said AJ Rollman ’22.
The Catacombs Toga Party occurs every fall semester and has been around for a while. However, none of the residents currently living on the hall know the history or origins of how Toga came about. Was it just something to do back in the day, or was it part of a larger story?
Clarity regarding the origins of the Catacombs toga party appears to remain lost in memory. Alumnus Josiah Roe ’02 claims that a few of his friends started wearing togas to Dr. Bill Davis’ CHOW I class while reading the Aeneid, as a joke.
When Dr. Davis saw that they were wearing togas he decided to share the information that, when he was at Covenant, the Catacombs used to dress up in togas around the hall, and he also shared the fact that the hall used to flood when it rained.
Upon hearing this, Roe and his hallmates had an idea and ran with it. They decided to throw a party on their hall that included a man-made flood in the form of a kiddie pool and, of course, togas.
Dr. Davis said, “I honestly have no idea why anyone would connect me to a Catacombs party,” when he was told this story because he is, in fact, a Brethren alumnus. After receiving an anonymous text regarding his involvement in the origins, Davis assumed he was at the center of a prank.
Johnny Bates ’98, another Catacombs alumnus, said, “Actually, we had one in 1985, it was a part of Belz Bash,” which included a live band.
With or without the origins of the toga party being decisively known, it continues to be a long-standing tradition that comes from being a part of the Catacombs.
The current RA, Michael Fenema ’21, said, “The Catacombs boys have always had a taste for the modern and the ancient,” so a toga dance party makes perfect sense.
As of 2013, the toga party is no longer allowed to be held on the hall because of a fire hazard. This year's party was off-campus at the home of some Catacombs seniors.
In an extremely cramped living room with students from all over campus, the toga party commenced. It was a night full of crushed toes and lost voices, carrying on the longstanding tradition of the Catacombs, even if no one knows how it started.