Sorority Not Knowing Ritual?!
 

One of my best friends in my sorority has a best friend that is in another sorority on campus. I won't mention the name but they are a great group on our campus. Well, their nationals representative was in about 3 weeks ago. The sister in the other sorority made a comment to my friend along the lines of "Yeah, we are going to have a practice session today because we never do formal chapter (ie ritual) and we don't know how to do it or anything about it." She went on to say that since initiation she had not participated in their ritual and they all needed to review for the nationals rep.

Now, I believe my sister, but this seems really crazy. Maybe this woman was just a fluke or was exaggerating? I don't want to believe that any group would not do their ritual frequently; it's one of the most important aspects of sorority life, in my opinion. Lets you know what you are all about! And certainly they have a nationals rep at least once a year that they would have to do ritual with!:confused:

Anyway, this has really been bothering me. Does this line up with anything on your campuses?? Is it possible??

While it does seem shocking that this chapter does not know its own Ritual, I think it's very possible.

I don't know how it is with the other sororities on campus, but I know that my chapter's foundation is based upon our Ritual. Chapter meetings and ceremonies would not be the same without it!

I don't know how a chapter would not know their own Ritual. We've had crappy Ritual chairs in the past, but regardless of that, everyone knew each part of Ritual. You couldn't be a member without knowing it. If we needed help with something or if we were unsure about a specific Ritual part, that's where Advisors and Alumnae come in. It was as simple as that.

It's just shocking to hear that this chapter only made it a point to learn and know their Ritual when their national representative came in to town. Sounds like an issue that they should really work on!

I believe it
 

I absolutley believe that. My chapter was wearing the wrong thing to pledging. We had ALWAYS worn black. Everyone wears all formal black dresses. Well come to find out in the winter time-nope! supposed to be white. How that got mixed up-I don't know. Our chapter was doing this from the beginning of time. theladies that founded our chapter were like what the?????? Why are ya'll wearing white. Finally we had an advisor from another state assigned to us and she clued us in. Also, There are a few things during initiation that had been explained wrong to us. I met a sister from Louisianna one time and she said something to me about-"it", and I was like what? and she was so shocked that I didn't know what she was talking about. She affiliated with our chapter and told me one night ath if national knew how did things, we'd be shut down. Apparently we had it ALL wrong.

Also-just a thought-we have formal and informal meetings. If a chapter chooses to have informal meetings-they may not do all the ritual stuff that is done at fomral meeitns. We have one informal meeting a month and we don't do all the "stuff". Maybe that's what she means.

Re: I believe it
 

That's exactly what was happening. The chapter was always having informal chapter meetings, never having formal with ritual. My chapter has informal once every month or two also, but of course we all know the ritual. It's important to find a time to do it, as you said.

We had formal, ritual chapter once a month, and the rest of the time it was informal. Our chapter always had a ritual practice before a NO came in because they didn't only quiz us on ritual chapter meetings, but also intitiation. The older sisters knew it because they have done it so often, but the younger girls weren't as secure in it. If we didn't securely know it, everyone had the gist of it, at least. I hope everything goes well with your friend's chapter!

BlueViolet: Yeah, we had a few of those "OMG!" moments....like we were singing a ritual song to the completely wrong tune. :p

Hard to imagine not knowing your ritual.. My chapter probably does about 4/5 of our meetings with ritual. Of course we were a colony for 3 years and are now VERY happy to finally have a ritual.

We never had formal chapter meetings...as they were on Sunday nights, we were lucky if we got out of our jammies to attend, to be perfectly honest. At the beginning of the year we had a formal meeting, but that was it. For us, weekly meetings really had nothing to do with ritual.

My little sis went to AGD's convention a couple of years ago, and she told me that her roommate (who was president of a different chapter) asked her to go over ritual with her in their room before they had to go do it at convention, because their chapter hardly ever does it and she couldn't remember it. I can't imagine not knowing ritual; what's the point of a fraternity or sorority without it?

WE have a ritual book and it gives directions on everything from where exactly candles should be placed etc. So it is hard to mess up because all the ritual chair needs to do is follow the book.
I would think other chapters have some resources available to them. Also isn't there an advisor to help out in these situations?

If your friend is a newer sister meaning she was in the last initiated pledge class, than I don't think that it is a big deal. If she was initiated three years ago, there is definitely a problem. Either way, it is a good thing that they brushed for a national rep.

Well, I can't speak for other chapters, but all that stuff isn't done except at ceremonies. We don't drag out candles and all that for formal chapter meetings. "Knowing ritual" is more about remembering the core, non-publicly stated beliefs and creeds of the sorority.

I couldn't agree more. On the livejournal community sororitygirl one of the members posted a great speech by I think a Sigma Chi alum on the importance of ritual--it's one of the most special and precious things about Greek life. I can't imagine not at least being familiar with it.

She is a junior (pledged spring 2001) so she should probably know by know. Agreed that it is good that they did learn it! :)

There should be ample books and resources for any national sorority or fraternity, IMHO. I know that my chapter has lots of them, but we're relatively new (chartered 1992). I can see where older chapters might have moved away from their founding heritage more, but it seems that they should be able to get the resources they need pretty easily (from nationals, from a nearby chapter, or from advisors (I know we have several alums in our teenie college town, as well as a Pi Phi alum house mom and two Pi Phis on the faculty!). I just don't see any excuse for not knowing ritual whatsoever. I can see maybe being unclear on the tunes of songs (heck, I'm unclear on the tunes of most things :D!) or not actually doing it that often--but I firmly believe that you should know it. I can see where you might view it as a waste of time, but personally, it's added so much to my life that I can't begin to explain. Even my roomie, who's an atheist (we have a Christian-based ritual) says it means so much to her. It gives us something special--it's what distinguishes us from just another club.

Am I way out of touch here? I hope not...

You're not out of touch. I think your story is symptomatic of a bigger problem. If you don't know your ritual, in my opinion, you haven't taken its ideals and teachings to heart. I've seen entire chapters that regard Ritual as some kind of funny anacronysm they have to go through once a semester to stay in good standing. And guess what? Those chapters are no longer there.

When you see serious problems like hazing, excessive drinking and drugs running rampant in a chapter, you know they're not really *listening* to Ritual. And eventually, those charters will get yanked, the media goes nuts on the latest story, and lawsuits get filed. And the worst part is that much of the time we bring it on ourselves. :(

Please don't misunderstand me--I'm not saying that your friend's chapter is hazing or anything like that. But if more fraternity men and women *really* paid close attention to their Ritual, and worked at *living* the ideals of their Ritual every single day...I think many of our risk management and image problems would simply take care of themselves.

Sorry, I know I just got waaaay off topic, but stories like yours set me off on this tangent every single time I hear them.

Back to your regularly scheduled thread. :)

You're probably thinking about Secret Thoughts of a Ritual, which has been passed around and shared by many GLO's. (Google turned this copy up at the Kappa Sig website; I think the author -- Edward M. King, Dean of Men at Bradley University -- may have been a Lambda Chi, but I'm not sure).

Or, you might be thinking of Sigma Chi's Essays on a Fraternity's Ritual (which is accompanied on Sigma Chi's website with the disclaimer "Don't fret. This can, and perhaps should, be viewed by non-members").

Both are excellent resources for all Greeks.

Were kinda in a different boat.

Not including the new alumni ritual (which none of us understand), we have 7 rituals, and only one is esoteric - The initiation ritual. We do our business meeting ceremony once a month, but its real simple and open. Our ritual of initiation is a bit of a bear. We only perform it for initiations. Our chapter used to do a lot of things wrong in it, which were well intentioned, but took away from the spirit and understanding of it. I was elected chapter ritualist, and saw my first international ritual, then saw it performed at a colony instilation. I got to play an integral role in it and finally understood it and its essence. Brought those changes back to the chapter and for the most part the brothers embraced the changes. We learned the meanigns behind what is said / done and it took on a whole new life in the chapter. Our guys live/ eat/ breathe our ritual performance and technical mastery is expected. Its a point of pride for us. Eventually, we gained the reputation for executing a flawless ritual, and then began to be asked to help initiate colonies in the area, which to me, is the highest ritualistic copliment that can be paid to a chapter.

Of course the challenge is to live up to the values expressed in our ritual, and constantly push ourselves and our brothers/sisters to attain those ideals.