Fraternity or Sorority in Europe?

[MysticCat]

Originally Posted by Tulip86

That would look like most Dutch fraternities and sororities.

One of the things I noticed about "Greek" life when I got here (the Netherlands) is that it resembles the American Greek system a lot. They just have local, city-wide groups and the setup is different between universities to suit the scale and style of the city. They don't have Greek letters, but a name instead. Some groups are on their own, some are part of larger associations and that is where you really see the old European traditions (no fencing though). But at their core, they're all pretty similar to the Greek system.

Rituals, alumni-involvement, leadership, specific values, friendship, recruiting, activities, pledging, parties, mixers, formals, traditions? All there.
The tent-talk and the gossip are present. Even the tales about hazing are the exact same stories I heard in high school.

Really interesting. Thanks for the info. Are these groups single-sex?

And as for the bolded, that's certaily not without precedent in North America. While the vast majority of fraternities and sororities use Greek letter names, not all do, or did. Consider Triangle, Acacia, FarmHouse, Ceres, . . . . And, of course, there's the case of Sinfonia, a name which our tradition says was taken from the name of a German student organization that the Director of New England Consevratory, George W. Chadwick, had been initiated into while studying at the Royal Conservatory in Leipzig.

[Tulip86]

Originally Posted by MysticCat

Really interesting. Thanks for the info. Are these groups single-sex?

And as for the bolded, that's certaily not without precedent in North America. While the vast majority of fraternities and sororities use Greek letter names, not all do, or did. Consider Triangle, Acacia, FarmHouse, Ceres, . . . . And, of course, there's the case of Sinfonia, a name which our tradition says was taken from the name of a German student organization that the Director of New England Consevratory, George W. Chadwick, had been initiated into while studying at the Royal Conservatory in Leipzig.

Most are single-sex, there are a few mixed groups. The larger associations are even same-sex in a few cases, though in a lot of cities two same-sex groups have formed a larger coed association (up to 2700 members in some cases ). It seems so work very well here. Membership has been growing steadily in the past 10 years.

I completely blanked on the non-Greek letter fraternities and sororities in the US. Their names are very similar to those in the Netherlands. There's even a group here called Ceres, though it's a larger association not a sorority but it is associated with a university that specializes in agriculture.

Originally Posted by Trèves

I visited some websites of fraternities in the Netherlands (Maastricht). They look very similar to American fraternities.

I will do some more research and maybe I am going to start something like that at my university.

Good luck, if you need any more info feel free to send me a PM.