Ancient Roman Culture Thrives as the Exeter Community Unknowingly Celebrates Floralia

Floralia! This truly wonderful time, stretching from April 28 to May 3, celebrates Flora, the goddess of spring. Floralia is unlike any other Roman holiday in that it is known for its promiscuous nature because, among Flora’s fields of governance, she also controlled fertility. This prompted the ancient Romans to wear colorful clothes instead of their traditional, white togas. Roman prostitutes would perform naked in the theater, and all those known for their ~loose~ nature were for once acknowledged during the Floralia celebrations. Citizens would also  throw chickpeas at circus performers as a “fun” form of encouragement.

With spring finally hitting Exeter, I have noticed a suspicious trend of many hidden Floralia customs happening in our own community. On the first day of Floralia, a young Fac Brat threw a cracker my dear friend’s head upon looking him directly in his eyes, much like how Roman citizens pelted performers with chickpeas. Yes. I admit crackers are not chickpeas; however, Exonians performing the day-to-day ritual of masking their pain while enduring numbing amounts of stress is a brilliant circus performance in itself.

Another inexplicable tie to ancient Roman prostitutes dancing in the theater took place just outside The Grill on night of hip hop showcase (also the first day of Floralia). Tommy Kim, Raymond Alvarez-Adorno, yours truly, and many more beautiful Exonians did the floss dance for all those passing by. Flossing, in case you didn’t know, is a dance in which your hips act as floss by swinging in between your arms which symbolize two teeth. This creates a side-to-side, thrust-like movement. If flossing isn’t the most promiscuous dance you can think of, I don’t know what is.

Lastly, with the warm weather Flora has brought us, Exeter has become a much more colorful campus. Gone are the traditionally colorless aesthetics of winter term.  Vibrantly clashing Vineyard Vines outfits and salmon shorts reign supreme!

So for those of you who groan every time a nearby Latin scholar says, “Salve,” keep these curious parallels between Ancient Rome and Exeter in mind. If you ask me, it seems that we are connected to this “dead” culture after all.