Quote:
Originally Posted by Zillini
Congrats!
Lavaliering and pinning were two of my favorite traditions when I was in school. It was always exciting to walk into the house and see the candle sitting on the table, the announcement there was a candlepass that night. Everyone started speculating on who could it be? It was the talk of the house for the whole day. It can't be Jane, she's only been dating her guy a month. It can't be Susie. She's been dating her boyfriend forever and if he hasn't given her his pin by now, he never will. 
Then after dinner everyone would gather around and the pass would start. I loved the song we sang. The candle slowly moved around the room. Everybody watched the girls we thought it might be but they passed the candle on to the next. Wow, not her or her! I thought for sure it was one of those. One of the top "contenders" made a move to blow it out. Psyche! Nope not her either. The candle continued around the circle.
One time around and everyone clapped and cheered. A pinning! Wait, could it even be an engagement? (A real rarity when I was in school.) The singing started up again and the anticipation was even stronger. The field of potential candidates had significantly narrowed. All eyes were now on the girls we knew were already lavaliered. (Every once in a blue moon we'd have a shocker with someone who's boyfriend skipped lavaliering and went straight to pinning.)
Finally the candle got blown out and the room erupted with clapping, cheering and hugs. Not long afterwards the sounds of male singing could be heard outside. All the sisters would file outside to be seranaded by the guy's fraternity. They would sing hello and we would sing/answer back. Then the young man in question would be drug out to the front of the pack to sing to his lady love. The girl would shyly be pushed forward as well and the singing continued.
The whole thing was sweet and it's a lovely memory. (Especially if you don't think about everyone heading to the nearest bar afterwards for an impromptu mixer. Though those were always fun too. ) |
That's pretty much how I remember it, too - except the outside seranading. It's pretty hard to seranade someone on the tenth floor! The only other difference is that very few sisters got lavaliered, but pinning and engagements were rampant!
One way we could narrow down a pinning was if someone who rarely wore the shirt & pullover combination suddenly showed up at meeting in one. After she blew out the candle, there would be the stripping of the sweater!
I suppose that turning off the candle doesn't have the cachet of blowing it out, but when you did blow it out, sisters would hug you, and someone almost always got burned by the just-blown-out candle - but it was worth it!
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