Faith4Keep's Retro Recruitment!

[lyrelyre]

Originally Posted by sherbertlemons

It varies a little from sorority to sorority and from campus to campus, but generally when a sister gets lavaliered or engaged, a candle pass is held. The sister will privately tell the chapter president that she needs a candle pass, and with my chapter they were generally held right after chapter meetings.

We would gather in a rather large circle, and a lit candle (fake, unfortunately) would be passed from sister to sister while we sang a Kappa song. The candle would be passed once for a lavaliere or twice for an engagment. (TrueBlueKappa, correct me if I'm wrong cause I can't count!)
When it arrived at the sister who the candle pass was for, she would blow the candle out. (Or in our case, turn the candle off.)

It's amazing how much less romantic a candle pass is with modern technology.

Our candle passes were very similar (we called it a "candlelight”), except that you didn’t have to tell anyone at the chapter. All of the florists in town made bouquets (just like a bridesmaid’s bouquet) with a candle in the center. They would deliver it to the chapter house and it would sit on a table in the foyer all day, so everyone would see it (and make conjectures all day about who it was). Then, after dinner, we would pass it (once around for a lavaliere, twice for pinning, and three times for engagement-they were very uncommon at my chapter for anything other than engagement). We sang our sweetheart song while it was passed around the circle.

People would talk all day about who it was – the flowers were always a clue because we would think “whose favorite color is pink” or “Doesn’t Sarah love lilies?” Ah, memories.

My favorite candlelight was a girl in the pledge class just below mine. Her big and her twin were standing on either side of her. When she was holding the bouquet for the third time they blew it out. Her boyfriend (soon to be fiancé) came around the corner in full formal military dress, bowed, drew his sword, and presented her with a gorgeous ring on the end of the sword. So romantic...

[CrimsonBlues]

Originally Posted by sherbertlemons

It's amazing how much less romantic a candle pass is with modern technology.

We always went outside to avoid the ban on lit candles in the house. The honking of cars passing by tended to kill the mood on occasion.

[alum]

US actives would type up a sign and put it on the bulletin board that there would be a candlelight after the weekly meeting. Once around for lavaliere, twice for pin, 3x for engaged. Ususally at homecoming there would be a apecial candlelight session. I remember the candle went around 4 and 5 times for marriage and expecting baby announcements due to returning alumnae.

[adpiucf]

This may be more particular to coming from a large chapter, but it always felt like we had 1-3 candlelightings after every single meeting! I often wondered how that many women could be getting engaged and lavaliered every week!!!

[sherbertlemons]

Originally Posted by adpiucf

This may be more particular to coming from a large chapter, but it always felt like we had 1-3 candlelightings after every single meeting! I often wondered how that many women could be getting engaged and lavaliered every week!!!

I remember feeling like that, too. There were definitely some months when we had a candlelight after every single chapter meeting!

[adpiucf]

Originally Posted by sherbertlemons

I remember feeling like that, too. There were definitely some months when we had a candlelight after every single chapter meeting!

...still waiting for mine...

We actually had alumnae that would come back to our chapter years later to celebrate a candlelighting because of an engagement. I always thought that was a bit nuts, but as I'm getting older... I totally get it. haha

[TSteven]

Originally Posted by Faith4Keep

I also know some fraternities who are only strict on embroidered letters, such as on jerseys or greek letters embroidered on polos. But they can have screen-printed greek letters on a t-shirt. I wonder what everyone's policy is and if this changes from school to school as well as GLO to GLO.

Sigma Chi Fraternity does not allow pledges to wear the Greek letters. However, they may wear shirts with the words "Sigma Chi" or "Sigs". This is a national regulation.

[sherbertlemons]

Originally Posted by adpiucf

...still waiting for mine...

We actually had alumnae that would come back to our chapter years later to celebrate a candlelighting because of an engagement. I always thought that was a bit nuts, but as I'm getting older... I totally get it. haha

I can totally understand that! :-)

What was fun would be when you would come back from summer break and there might be like 4 or 5. Everybody's like we have to do this AGAIN?

Ahh, the many joys of huge chapters.

[adpiucf]

Just because the UCF people are still reading this thread, is anyone planning to go to a game this season in the brand-new on-campus football stadium?

Now that I am back in Florida, I definitely plan on it! We should have a UCF GC gathering -- there are enough of us on here!

[sherbertlemons]

Originally Posted by adpiucf

Just because the UCF people are still reading this thread, is anyone planning to go to a game this season in the brand-new on-campus football stadium?

Now that I am back in Florida, I definitely plan on it! We should have a UCF GC gathering -- there are enough of us on here!

That would be fun.

[Faith4Keep]

We should totally do that! I am purchasing student season passes- good luck getting tickets! We can definitely get together to tailgate if nothing else.

[ISUKappa]

Originally Posted by sherbertlemons

When it arrived at the sister who the candle pass was for, she would blow the candle out. (Or in our case, turn the candle off.)

Candlepassings were the *only* thing we still used real candles for (shhhhh). But seeing as we had maybe 1 every other year, it wasn't really an issue.

And the sister having the candlepass would decorate the candle and then slip it into the president's room [hopefully without anyone seeing her] and we would do the candlepass after dinner but before chapter on a Monday night.

[Buttonz]

Originally Posted by dukemama

Of the GLOs at my alma mater, Theta and Pi Phi are the 2 that I recall don't allow members to wear the Greek letters of their sororities' names until after initiation. I'd be curious to know if there are any others.

We don't (at least my chapter didn't, and I'm pretty sure the other two CUNY chapters didn't either)

[Drolefille]

Originally Posted by ISUKappa

Candlepassings were the *only* thing we still used real candles for (shhhhh). But seeing as we had maybe 1 every other year, it wasn't really an issue.

And the sister having the candlepass would decorate the candle and then slip it into the president's room [hopefully without anyone seeing her] and we would do the candlepass after dinner but before chapter on a Monday night.

Ditto on the candlepassings being the only thing we used real candles for, but we had a few more than that. We probably had one every 3 weeks except for when we had a rush of them and then it was every chapter and even extra events like recruitment practice or something.

[sherbertlemons]

Originally Posted by ISUKappa

Candlepassings were the *only* thing we still used real candles for (shhhhh). But seeing as we had maybe 1 every other year, it wasn't really an issue.

I'm from a young chapter. The fraternity kept a really sharp eye on us when I was in college, and so we couldn't get away with stuff like that.

What was really funny would be when the sister didn't know how to turn off the candle. You could tell she was trying to do it, but the light wouldn't turn off.

I love Kappa, and understand why that rule exists, but it sure can take the romance out of a candlelight.

ETA: How on earth did you guys manage to have that few candlelights? Would some sisters just choose not to have one?