Party

A party is a social gathering intended primarily for celebration and recreation. While having some things in common with religious and seasonal festivals, the term "party" usually denotes a smaller gathering for a personal, rather than cultural, occasion even when the occasion is simply that of enjoyment.

Related Topics:
Celebration - Recreation - Festival

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Reasons for parties, and the style in which they are held, are as diverse as the activities which people find enjoyable. Some are held to mark a particular joyous occasion, such as a birthday, wedding, or coming of age. Such parties are usually associated with family and close friends. A holiday often provides the pretext for smaller parties as well as broader festival activities.

Related Topics:
Birthday - Wedding - Coming of age - Family - Friend - Holiday

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Some parties, such as the traditional English tea party or the modern cocktail party, are social gatherings within a fairly formal, or at least stylized, atmosphere. At the other end of the spectrum are such events as the rave party, which are generally counter-cultural in nature and tend to challenge concepts of what is "proper."

Related Topics:
Tea party - Cocktail party - Rave party

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Some varieties of party stress a particular form of entertainment, such as the bridge party, which is focused around the card game of bridge, the pool party, usually an outdoor affair centered on a swimming pool, or the costume party, an offshoot of the masquerade ball, where the costumes of the participants provide the theme for the event.

Related Topics:
Bridge - Swimming pool - Costume party - Masquerade ball - Costume

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Parties provide numerous opportunities for social interaction of various kinds, depending on the participants and their understanding of the accepted behavior for a given occasion. As a result, they tend to reinforce cultural and/or counter-cultural standards, though sometimes this is simply by providing a semi-acceptable social context for violating some of those standards. Some examples of this would be parties for singles (people who are unmarried) and the Bachelor party or the Bachelorette party, a final celebration of a man or woman, respectively, before marriage.

Related Topics:
Bachelor party - Bachelorette party - Marriage

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