Guidance on rituals
 

Hi everyone! I've posted on here before but I have another question I'd like to ask. For my local sorority we are trying to change some of our rituals. I wanted to know if there were any type of guidelines that I could find that would help us change them. For example, our pinning rituals, initiation rituals, etc. We are a new sorority and we are making up our rituals to represent our uniqe group, but at the same time we wanted some guidelines to work with as we changed our rituals. How would we go about finding those guidelines to help us out a little? I hope that makes sense and thanks in advance!

A ritual is unique and it should represent the values of your organization. You can try googling "non-secret fraternity" or "open rituals" or something like that if you want to read a non-secret ritual of another group. Delta Upsilon is one example.

But PLEASE don't copy them. :) Make it your own.

thanks! i DEF dont want to copy anyone. its more just like we need some kind of guidelines cuz we kind of dont know how they should look.

Yeah, thanks for adding that, Ree-Xi. There is no specific way your rituals SHOULD look. They are unique to your organization. I just posted that as an idea of what other groups do. Again, make it your own because it's so important.

Yeah my girls wouldnt allow any type of copying because they know that we are using it as just a sort of guideline. It just helped to know what kind of rituals other organziations do so that we can add on more, and revamp some of the old ones that we reallyyy didn't like Thanks a lot though that really helped!

creativity is the key. :D

Like every said before a ritual is based on the values and ideals of your org. Your rituals in that sense should exemplify what you are trying to achieve.

The initiation into the new member process is often a welcoming into taking your first step into brother/sisterhood. It should be something that allows your new-members (pledges) to feel like they are being welcomed into something big but also lets them learn about your values. In the beginning reading off your list of ideals could be enough. Where maybe more rituals are held that focus on specific ones to further strengthen the understanding and importance. There is a reason the "pledge process" is now called new-member education. The purpose of the process is to educate them about your organization, its history, and its ideals. Whether it be the lighting of candles, pinning, or just going out to eat. Anything can be a ritual. It's attaching a meaning to it that helps the growth of your members is what is important.

very well said

Most of the NPC sororities are very old, around 100 years + and although the rituals have probably been modified slightly, they are still very similar to what was written in the late 1800's. You can read that as overly stuffy if you'd like. Even if you were to get your hands on a couple rituals (and please don't try), I would not recommend you do anything like those. The very nature of the process would not be in keeping with a 21st century sorority.

Without giving away any secrets, the Alpha Xi Delta ritual includes a lot of old-fashioned phrasing of words and songs that in my opinion are slow and kind of dirge-like. No, that's not going to change, and I wouldn't want it to. It reflects the era of our founding and the great women who designed it. But that's not you.

I would do some searching online for symbol meanings and maybe that will help give you a few ideas. Just remember to keep the definition of hazing in mind. And whatever you do, it should reflect dignity and respect.