I know three fraternity handshakes and one sorority initiation. The secrets are kinda fun to know, but its really not that big of a deal. Its special if its you doing them.

What group wears robes for initiation- Guess you can't tell me that.... Are you a Chi O at NCSU?

Delta Upsilon's ritual is open. I think the founders didn't like the secretiveness of the other socieities on campus. On my campus they alum initiated the president of the university and did the ritual in front of the entire greek community. Their ritual book is even on their website.

Delta Upsilon, which was founded in 1834 with the express intent of opposing the secrecy of the two existing fraternities at Williams College. The founders of Delta Upsilon believed that these fraternities had abused their secrecy by conspiring to have their members elected to campus offices, regardless of qualification. They decided that their fraternity would not be secret, so that no one could make a similar accusation against it. (Keep in mind that in the first half of the nineteenth century, fraternity secrecy often involved more than just the details of the ritual -- on some campuses, membership and meeting time and place were secret.)

You can read Delta Upsilon's initiation ritual at their website here (Adobe Acrobat required).

There is at least one other NIC member with an open, but "private," ritual (that is, they allow non-members at their rituals, but by invitation), but which one it is escapes me.

There may well be some members of the Professional Fraternity Association with open rituals, but every PFA member I am familiar with keeps its ritual secret.

ETA: You were a little faster than me on the "Submit" button, seraphimsprite. ;)

Of course! Thanks!

I'm not sure about other members of the Professional Fraternity Association, but I know for a fact (since I'm a member ;) ) that all ritual-related stuff for Delta Sigma Pi is not "open".

Maybe there are some PFA GLOs that have open ritual, but not all of them do. :)

I remember one day I was talking to some of my ADPi sisters about Delta Sigma Pi, and they were surprised to learn that we had secret stuff just like we did with ADPi. They thought the process for the professional fraternities were you get a bid card, and poof! you're a member! They were surprised to learn we had ritual stuff too.

I believe Phi Beta Chi also has open ritual. Our oldest sister who's a FBC tried to get me and my other sister (who's also a Kappa) to tell her our ritual. She didn't really get why it was secret since hers is open. We wouldn't. I think we probably gave her a wedgie for even asking. ;)

Tau Beta Sigma's are not open. I have to admit some quiet curiosity, though, as to how similar our ritual secrets are to our brother fraternity, Kappa Kappa Psi. (I don't know... never have been nosey enough to seek it out out of respect) :)

~ Mel.

I don't know secrets of my bf's fraternity only because him and I don't talk about that stuff. I do see stuff that is used in their rituals aroung their house and when I ask what it is for they say "Ritual" and I go "okay" and never ask futher questions (sometimes I just don't wanna know why they use what I see lol).

As for sororities, I only know what I read outta pledge...if they even true or not. I did have the chance to go through a pledge manual of another sorority but decided against it because well, I'd hope she wouldn't do the same.

Thank you MysticCat81, for clearing that up for me too.

I'd wondered for a long time what Phi Mu Alpha Sinfonia members as the org is social but had been professional thought about the fact its rituals would have been public when it had professional status and was a member of the PFA but when they changed to social status and became part of the NIC again the rituals would have been made secret... but there would still be copies out there.
It was all a bit confusing and I got very mixed up over the details as you can see! :)

Now I know they were and are a member of the PFA, never NIC and that their rituals were always secret. Think I got that right?

eta: I also learnt that very many PFA members have closed rituals (etc) so I have learnt quite a bit from this thread.

Delta Omicron is PFA and secret, as well.

Texas Princess already stated part of this, but Delta Sigma Pi is part of the PFA and the ritual is secret. I can't remember if Alpha Chi Sigma is part of the PFA, but I know their ritual is secret.

Yes, you do. I'll do the best I can without too much detail.

We were founded as a social fraternity, veered into the arena of professional fraternity and eventually so described ourselves (say in the 60's and 70's), and then in the 80's made the decision to reject "professional" designation and return to our founding as a social fraternity.

Nevertheless, we were one of the founders of the PFA and are still a member of the PFA, figuring it is better to be a member of some umbrella organization rather than none, and the PFA membership requirement is broad enough to encompass social fraternities with a special interest (like music).

My understanding is that there has been quite a bit of discussion nationally about what kind of umbrella organzation we should be part of and what we should do about our PFA affiliation, but I really can't tell you what the current status of that discussion is. So far, we have not sought membership in the NIC, although many chapters have joined their campus IFCs.

But our ritual has always been secret.

Wow, this is very interesting. Stiil learning things, thank god!

I know that there are Ritual Collectors out there and one is our own wptw. He is very closed to the vest with these things as I am sure most are out of respect. He has given a lot of introspect on some questions but no secrets.:cool:

While I have an inquiring mind, I dont delve into others Rituals as I feel mine are sacred to me and my Brothers. Therefore, I am not really interested in others Rituals as I am sure that they and you all feel the way as I do about my ritual the same way each of you do about The Ritual that you have been through.

A fraternity at Ole Miss left from 97-2000 and there house was occupied by another fraternity who's house had burned down, anyway, some of us came upon a secret room at a fraternity house. It was very neat. I never would have imagined what I saw. Let's just put it this way, you would not have known it was there unless you were a member of that fraternity or lived in that house. Very neat.