Big Sister Revealing
 

This semester my Chapter needs to come up with a new idea how to reveal big sisters to their new littles. I was wondering what all of your chapters do for Big Sis/ Little Sis night. We want it to be as fun as possible, because it's supposed to be an exciting night when you finally get to find out who your big sister is. Any suggestions would be great. :)

Does your sorority have "families" of bigs and littles? For instance Sapphire Sister families in our chapter decided to take on family names based on nature. My particular family of Sapphire Sisters are the stars. We also have dophins, clouds, bees, dragonflies, ladybugs, cheetahs, and suns. For our new Sapphire Sister revealing we printed out pictures of the various symbols for the families. Then depending on how many people were in each family you cut the pictures up like puzzle pieces for the number of family members, including the newest Sapphire Sisters. Then everyone scattered around the room with little puzzle pieces in their hands. Sapphire Sisters pieces matched up exactly. Once all the sisters were matched up they then grouped together as a family to put their pictures together. This then revealed what family they are in. It was a lot of fun doing that.

That sounds like a cute idea, we may be able to make something like that work.

Two things we've done:

Have the bigs draw a picture of themselves and write a few facts, like "I'm a groupie at the Pint" (a popular bar around our town) "I know what the Krebs cycle is" (bio major) and then give those pictures to the littles. Then have all the actives line up and have the new girls try and guess who theirs is.

This semester we got little gift bags and put two things of ours in their that would give away a clue as to who it is. I put in a monkeyball (they were on my desk during recruitment) and my claddagh that I always wear. The new girls then got to guess, based on the stuff, then got their REAL presents.

what do you do now?

I'll try to explain what we do as best as possible. All of the sisters are standing together in a circle and the new members are in the circle. There will be a sister in the circle with the newmembers. That sister will bring a newmember forward and have her close her eyes. The sister will spin the new girl around in a circle( giving the big sis time to enter the circle) when the new member opens her eyes someone pretending to be her big sis is in front of her. The sister standing in front of her then reads a cute little poem or something to the new member. It normally ends with something like turn around to meet finally meet your big sis. She turns around and there is her big sis. Then the big sis will give her a pink rose (our flower) Then the big sis takes her little sis into the circle and then it's the next person's turn. Sometimes it won't be the big sis standing behind her. Each big sis wil think of something different. The poem may end with a final clue and tell the little to look in the circle for her big sis and the big sis will be standing in the back with a pink rose. I hope I explained it ok.

We all love the way we have big sis revealing, but we are a bit concerned that it may appear to have any form of hazing. ( making them stand in the middle, making them close their eyes waiting for their big sis.) It is all really innocent but we would never want to get in trouble with our headquarters. What do you think, does it sound ok or should we find a way to change it?

That sounds cool. Ours is similarish, ok not really but....
we are all in a circle, nm and actives. The pledge dir says the name of a nm and starts out a candle and we pass it around the circle. While the candle goes around we sing a song, usually it goes around twice or so and then the big sis blows out the candle and they hug :) it is simple, but cute :)

we just got our bigs a week ago, so this is very fresh in my mind! :) after chapter, we were taken back into the main suite, with a candle. our vp of education had all of us new members sit down towards the front of the room, while different chapter members filtered in and sat behind us. we were each handed a piece of paper with a sisterhood type poem (granted..we had no idea what was going on. they lied and told us we werent getting our bigs til next week). one of the girls volunteered to read hers outloud first. as she read it, on the last line, the door to the suite opened (but you cant see it from the main part where you sit, only here it) and her big came in and read the last line along with her. as she walked up and finished the line, the big blew out the lil's candle, and then the lil blew out the big's candle. it was SO great! we were all shocked, and it was just really touching. i was so excited, and i thought this was a really sweet, sincere way to do it! :)

roxydiva

That is really pretty! I like how you do it roxy! :)

My chapter did it differently this semester. Each big left clues throughout one of the dorms (the one that houses their chapter room & residence hall). The clues led them to their various bigs. Then the bigs brought them down to the chapter room for a party with us alums.
Some of the clues were on other sorority halls & stuff. Everyone seemed to have a lot of fun with it.

we sometimes have done a candle pass, too. one time, we got balls of different colored yarn and strung it all through the house and even around the outside on the balcony and stuff. at the end of the yarn was a key to one of the rooms in the house. the girl then had to match the key to the room and inside was her big. it was pretty fun, and some people got really creative with how they did their yarn.

Usually we just have the little wear something to our meeting and their big sis is wearing the same thing. This year we did our revealing at Flower Toss, which is an I-Week event we do at the beach. Each big sis got a flower that they thought represented their new little and explained it to the chapter on the beach. It was really pretty and the girls were all excited.

We did the yarn maze this year. The year was wound up, down and all around the three floors of the sorority house. Then they taped clues to the string so that as you were unraveling the maze, you got clues as to who your big might be. We don't do a "mystery week" with clues so that was our first hint at who our bigs were . . . and our big sisters didn't know who their littles were going to be, either, so it was a double surprise.

we do a candle pass with the new girls in the middle. we sing songs and start reversing the direction of the candle so the nm gets confused. we then usually do the yarn maze to lead the nm to her presents.

We do something very similar to roxydiva. Each NM is outside of the conference room, while all the sisters are inside in a circle. Each new member is led in one at a time and given a piece of paper and a candle. The Marshall lights the candle and tells the NM "go to the middle of the room and read your paper, the first face you see will be that of your Big Sister." So the NM goes to the middle of the room and reads the paper (most family trees have a family poem that is read at every Big Lil Ceremony) which is usually only half of the poem. After she reads it, she looks up and her Big Sister walks up to her and lights her candle from the new Lil's light, and finishes the poem. After the Big is done, they blow the candle out together, the lights go on, they hug and get pictures taken. Then the little is put into the circle with the sisters, not by her Big and so on. It's my favorite ceremony :-)

big sis/lil sis ideas
 

Before we even pick out a big sis for our new members we have them fill out a form about their interests. That way we can match them with a big sis they would have a lot in common with.
This year the big sis left clues so the new member can try to figure out who she was based on the clues that reveled what they had in common. These clues were left at the nm house, work and our office @ school. They were things (like a giraffe and an elephant-favorite animals of the ladies and notes with secret messages to decode).
Finally, we had a retreat at a cabin where the nm tried to guess who her big sis was based on the clues. We all had a ball.

In the past the nm were asked to dress in a certain custom that would match their big sis's and scavenger hunts were the big sis would be at the end.

We do a week where 3 out of the 5 days the new members get presents and little clues as to who their Big is. It starts out on a Monday and it usually goes through Wednesday. Then the pledge has to wait until Sunday (when they usually have their new member meeting) to find out who her Big is. When I went through we got presents on Monday, Wednesday, and Friday and we had to wait until the following Sunday for revealment. I'm not sure if I'm allowed to say how we went through the actual revealment, but a few people have said something similar.

We put strings up around our house. The littles get an end of a string and follow it all over the house (usually going outside as well) and at the end of about 150 yds of yarn, they find their big sis waiting in a room or on the couch or something. Then we all go out to eat with our "families."

Our revelation is really cute- but can only work in a larger chapter.
We play guess who?
All of our members stand up, and then the new members ask yes or no questions to find out their big. Example: Does my big have her letters on? If the big is wearing her letters, then everyone with letters stays standing, and everyone without letters sits down.

I have been thinking of new ways to do the big/lil revealing, I still have to choose. The idea I like the most was the one where you give clues during the week. Then on revelation night, you ask three or four sisters to stand up and then you ask the lil based on the clues which one of these sisters is your big. I thought that was cute idea. My hints are going to be my princess keychain (cause my sister say that I am Zeta everything, i have so much sorority gear) and a pair of my gymnastics shorts. I will probably pick two other clues if I have to take twins during next semester.

I also wanted to know if someone can explain the aunts and the cousins and how they are picked and how they relate to the big/lil relationships and where are their bigs?

Not everyone even uses those terms and they aren't picked.

Your "aunt" would be your big's twin, if your big has a twin. Your "cousin" would be your aunt's little.

I am new to this so can you cut me some slack :D I didn't mean to use the term picked I just didn't how where aunts and cousins came from. But, thanks for the info

Can I just say this sounds like a really cute idea?

We do it where you get half of a saying and you read your half and the big sis stands up and reads her half. Afterwards you have family time. There's some other stuff that goes with it to make it more special too. :) I wish though we had more anticipation leading up to it because it's a suprise as to when you find out who your big sis is.

When a poem or something is read, is it made up by the big or is it already known in that particular family or sorority.

It depends. I don't think I've met two chapters that do this exactly alike. Big/little revealing is what you make of it.