Same with my family. And that is often what happened -- at some point in history on this side of the pond, the ancestor's arms became the "family" arms (since we don't have rules about it here).

Then, of course, there are the companies who have combed through Burke's Peerage and now sell arms found there as "family" arms.

I'm sorry, I'll take the blame for that :/

An interest is one thing. A need to read and study and try to truly understand a ritual that is private, and only means so much when written in a book, is another.

To say that the ritual has NO meaning when read by a non-member is probably an exaggeration. Obviously there can be SOME kind of a meaning found, and clearly there is one. I can acknowledge that as being fact for any Greek letter organization with a long and rich history. However, I don't feel the need to read through other GLOs' ritual books, because a) I'll never be there to experience the ceremonies, b) I probably won't bother to remember what was written anyway (seeing as it's not relevant to my life), and c) I have my own ritual by which I live.

Honestly, I probably would have been more curious before I joined a GLO to go looking through random ritual books than I am now (if I had ever even thought of doing such a thing). I find that non-Greeks tend to be a bit more curious because they know little to nothing about GLOs, and they wonder what goes on in ritual ceremonies of which they've never taken part.

Little bump, cause today when I was putting up flyers for my job, I accidentally witnessed part of a business fraternity's ritual (I think it was initiation?) I had no idea it was going on and I went up to the doors of a big lecture hall because there was a cork board outside of it. I was about to go inside the lecture hall cause I knew there was a cork board right inside of the doors too. But when I grabbed the handle, I noticed I could hear someone speaking on the other side of the doors.....and it sounded VERY ritual-ish. lol So, out of respect for the org., I decided to walk away......but it was like they decided to follow me!! Moments later, as I was putting up flyers a little further down the hall, and they come out into the hall...definitely doing ritual stuff. They saw me, but didn't seem to mind. Plus, I think it was the end of the ceremony, because shortly after that, everyone else came out and was talking and stuff. But I still feel awkward/weird that I witnessed that... :/

^^ Actually this reminds me of something similar that happened to me once. Me and one of my brothers were going down Fraternity Row to invite the different orgs to an event we were holding. We got to one of them and knocked on the door. They didn't answer and we were wondering what was up. We could see a whole bunch of them in the living room through the window that was open. We then heard them saying something that was obviously ritual. As soon as we figured it out we left. Turns out they were having their chapter meeting when we went down there.

I think everyone on an unhoused campus has some funny accidentally witnessed Ritual stories.

Once in the student union a guy walked into a meeting (I guess he was curious as to why the windows were covered with newspaper) gave us all a funny, embarrassed look at quickly backed out the door.

We hold Initiation in a beautiful historic courthouse, where we unfortunately are not always afforded the optimum level of privacy. Once some tourists with a video camera tried to peep through the uncovered transom window. Another time an agitated homeless man tried to break through the front doors and we had to call the police. Most recently the police officer who opened the building for us tried to come through an interior door, I suppose to see if we had finished, and was met me glaring at him through the crack.

So jealous.

I have seen rituals performed in the least ideal locations and I feel bad when people are initiated in classrooms with carpet, desks, and AV equipment in the way.

Ugh - pet peeve.

Despite the, ahem, security issues I couldn't imagine having it any place else. It's funny because a lot of my chapter brother think that you have to have Initiation in a courthouse, because its what they know, but in reality the majority of men are initiated in chapter rooms and house basements. The courthouse we use is truly the most ideal place I can think of the experience the Ritual.

One of my chapters on a commuter campus has had Initiations in the strangest places. The funniest one was when they rented the banquet room at a bowling alley. First, seeing all those women walking through a bowling alley in their white formals was hilarious. Seeing the looks on the faces of all the patrons was hilarious. The room was secure enough that nobody could hear/see what was going on, but it was NOT sound proof, so the sounds of strikes could be heard continually... That is one Initiation I will NEVER forget!

Our local chapter posts an alumnae member outside the door so that nobody can enter. It was much easier for my collegiate chapter to keep out people. We would cover all of the windows and doors and posted a sign at the door. Surprisingly, nobldy did ring the bell during initiation. I guess that was because all of the houses had a level of respect for each other's ritual and tried to avoid disruption.

If I remember right, we also took the house phone off the hook (it was loud).

ITA.

I pledged a different fraternity and found out a few things. The actives kept giving me the grip when they shook my hand and I also learned another one of their signs, and some of their ritual. I eventually became disenchanted with the organization, but that's a different story. I wouldn't reveal anything of theirs out of respect for the few actives that weren't tools and treated me pretty well, and their organization nationally is pretty well respected.

Our house wasn't big enough to do initiation in (or hold meetings in for that matter) so we always had it in classrooms. If I remember, we usually used the education building as they tended to have classrooms without as much stuff in them. You just have to come in advance and make it look nice. ;) I think one of the groups used the chapel on campus, but AFAIK, most people did the same thing with initiation just because of the space factor.

I always wondered what it would be like to have an initiation in a really great location. When I was active they were for the most part held in our chapter room but that was truly too small for initiation and was always hot, uncomfortable, and long. One time we did get to have it at a local church and used their banquet hall for the ritual and then the activities afterwords and that was the best location I saw. But it was still small and had a forest scene painted on one wall with Disney-esque characters, so it still wasn't ideal. The last one I attended was held in an old class room we use for recruitment purposes and it was the least "romantic" of them all.

Don't know where my Zeta's is done anymore since I'm old and out of the loop, but we used to use our school's music recital hall, which was THE SHIT. :D