Editing Cocktail party

{{Short description|Event at which cocktails are served}}
{{Other uses}}
[[File:Cocktail Party At The Imperial Hotel March 13, 1961 (Tokyo, Japan) (496610682).jpg|thumb|A cocktail party at the [[Imperial Hotel, Tokyo]], Japan, March 13, 1961.]]
[[File:Cocktail1.jpg|thumb|160px|A typical cocktail, served in a [[cocktail glass]].]]

A '''cocktail party''' is  a [[party]] at which [[cocktail]]s are served. It is sometimes called a cocktail reception. A cocktail party organized for purposes of [[social relation|social]] or [[business networking|business]] networking is called a mixer.

Some events, such as [[wedding reception]]s, are preceded by a cocktail hour. During the cocktail hour, guests socialize while [[Drinking#Alcoholic beverages|drinking]] and eating [[Hors d'oeuvre|appetizers]]. Organizers of these events use the cocktail hour to occupy guests between related events and to reduce the number of guests who arrive late.

Although it has been said that the inventor of the cocktail party was [[Alec Waugh]] of [[London]],<ref>{{Cite book |last=Ayto |first=John |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=yfb4NIo3d20C&q=%22the%20novelist%20Alec%20Waugh%22&pg=PA62 |title=Movers and Shakers: A Chronology of Words that Shaped Our Age |date=2006 |publisher=Oxford University Press |isbn=0-19-861452-7 |page=61 |quote=The novelist Alec Waugh claimed that he invented the cocktail party by serving a [[Rum Swizzle|rum swizzle]] to astonished friends […] in the spring of 1924}}</ref> an article in the ''[[St. Paul Pioneer Press]]'' in May 1917 credited its invention to Mrs. Julius S. Walsh Jr. of [[St. Louis, Missouri]]. Mrs. Walsh invited 50 guests to her house on a Sunday at high noon for a one-hour affair. "The party scored an instant hit," the newspaper declared, stating that within weeks cocktail parties had become "a St. Louis institution".<ref>{{Cite news |last=Felten |first=Eric |date=2007-10-06 |title=St. Louis - Party Central |page=W4 |work=[[The Wall Street Journal]] |publisher=[[Dow Jones & Company]] |url=https://www.wsj.com/articles/SB119161653517750477 |access-date=2007-10-06}}</ref>

Alec Waugh noted that the first cocktail party in England was hosted in 1924 by [[war artist]] [[Christopher Nevinson]].<ref>{{cite book | title=Liquid Pleasures: A Social History of Drinks in Modern Britain | publisher=[[Taylor & Francis]] | author=Burnett, John | year=2012 | pages=174 | isbn=9781134788804}}</ref>

German author Walter Leonhardt advised readers to observe "three fundamental rules" of cocktail parties, in a 1962 book on culture and customs of England:
# It should not last long, an hour and a half maximum, the time one can stand up, even if there are chairs for weaker constitutions.
# Guests should enter and leave freely, avoiding elaborate greetings on arrival and departure.
# Conversation must avoid passionate subjects (personal, political or religious topics) to keep a harmonious and cheerful ambiance.<ref name="Leonhardt">{{Cite book |last=Leonhardt |first=R. Walter |title=Las 77 Inglaterras |date=1963 |publisher=Ediciones Cid |location=Madrid |page=170 |language=es |translator-last=Aguilera |translator-first=Joaquín |trans-title=The 77 Englands |chapter=44 |id=Depósito legal M. 16.467 -1963}}</ref>

==See also==
* {{Section link|Hors d'oeuvre|In the United States}}
* ''[[The Cocktail Party]]'', a play by [[T. S. Eliot]]

==References==
{{Commons category|Cocktail parties}}
{{Reflist}}

{{Parties}}
{{Cocktails}}
{{Authority control}}

[[Category:Eating parties]]
[[Category:Drinking culture]]
[[Category:High society (social class)]]
[[Category:Upper class culture]]