On October 31st 2025, the study of Classics at the University of Groningen has organised a special day for Dutch high school students who have Greek or Latin in their curriculum. The theme was “De Oudheid: Natuurlijk!” (“Antiquity: Naturally!”). Around a hundred high school students, most of them from schools in the northern provinces of the Netherlands, took part in this day, which was filled with fun activities and engaging lectures. They could sign up for several workshops, such as Greek theatre or a tour through the special collections of the University Library, and they could attend small talks by university teachers of Classics, Ancient History and Archaeology, about intriguing subjects such as classics in videogames or the use of VR to imagine what ancient temples looked like. The Antiquity day was a great success and will definitely a recurring event for the next few years.
FACERE was also present on this Antiquity day to organise one of the most popular workshops: a cooking workshop to make moretum, following ancient recipes from Pseudo-Virgil and Columella. After a short introduction about the literary context of moretum, the high school students split up in groups of three to crush fresh herbs and garlic in a mortar and pestle, to add a pinch of salt and pepper and a dose of olive oil and vinegar, and to mix it all with a combination of ricotta and pecorino. All attendants could enjoy the end results on a piece of bread or on a salty cracker during a tasting at the end of the day.
The project leader and her assistants also got to try their hand at making moretum, alongside the high school students.