Fraternity or Sorority in Europe?

[Tulip86]

Originally Posted by MysticCat

As a generalization—perhaps a significant over-generalization—I'd say that traditionally the things that have set fraternities apart from other clubs include:

• An emphasis on brotherhood (hence the name "fraternity");
• An emphasis on specific values and principles that are intended to be guides for members' interations with each other, interactions with society, education and/or life in general;
• A coherent system of rituals, particularly initiation rituals, and symbols (usually including the Greek letters themselves), the content and meaning of which is usually known only by members, that express and reinforce the values and principles central to the fraternity;
• An emphasis on providing for some kind of common life—social life, mutual support, service to others, and/or room and board—to members;
• Exclusive membership, meaning membership by invitation only, and usually (though not always) single-sex membership; and
• At least for national or international fraternities, connections with students at other universities and with alumni after university.

Frankly, I think it would be really interesting to see what a group that combines some of these traits with the traditions of European student societies might look like.

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.


Trèves, my friends founded new groups so they could found them to fit in with campus culture and make sure it was something that could grow and thrive. I agree with MysticCat that it would be a good idea to look at those things you like about the American fraternities and adapt them to something that suits your group and would work at your university.