By “party”, I mean a physical social gathering of people for the purposes of having fun. It may be used in a sentence as “I am throwing a party!” or “Let’s party!”.
Basically what I am trying to say is the default “party”.
I’ve never been to any, and I have no idea how people spend their time on parties, so I am curious how you did.
Group activities like games, media, swimming, and so on. These are good for giving shy people something to focus on other than themselves. There is often some light eating. Libations if appropriate. The main activity is often socialization: meeting people, catching up with others, flirting, sharing opinions on various matters.
In one way, I think parties are like an event where the ants that traveled all over the yard and kitchen come back to the colony and integrate their various experiences into the superego/hivemind. It makes them feel a part of something bigger, like they are keyed into the world in a way they couldn’t as an individual, and like they have a loosely-associated tribe to feel a part of.
(And then there are the parties for folk like me where we get utterly inebriated in a space where we can all experience a heightened moment together, while also keeping an eye on each other in case anything goes awry. Which is basically a normal party but with misfits and a lot more drugs.)