kissing carnations?

antsmarching · #1 05-02-2002, 10:25 AM

Hello all! I just have a quick questionfor you. Im planning on going Greek in the fall when I transfer to my 4 yr university. I heard the term/function ( i dont know which) "kissing carnations" at one of my boyfriends teas...can anyone explain?

LeslieAGD · #2 05-02-2002, 11:12 AM

Marissa was just telling me about this! Something about a sorority inviting a fraternity over to meet their new members...the guys give the girls carnations and the girls kiss them on the cheek...or maybe it's the guys getting the flowers and the girls getting kissed...one of the two!

BearyCuteAPhi · #3 05-02-2002, 11:41 AM

Quote:

Originally posted by LeslieAGD
Something about a sorority inviting a fraternity over to meet their new members...the guys give the girls carnations and the girls kiss them on the cheek...or maybe it's the guys getting the flowers and the girls getting kissed...one of the two!

Well sorry but I do not know anything about this. However, I like what LeslieAGD said. I think it is a good idea and something I will look into doing next fall.

Although I could not help you thank you for giving me an idea!

Ronnie

squirrely girl · #4 05-02-2002, 11:43 AM

yeppers. yeah kissing carnations. it's so cute. basically the new member educator gets ahold of a fraternity and has the fraternity new member class (or current members - it doesn't matter) come over one night during a new member class. it's a big suprise for the new members, so DON'T tell em!

basically, one of the fraternity members calls a girl's name out, gives her a carnation (sometimes the fraternity buys them, usally the sorority has already bought them) and kisses her on the cheek. once all of the girls have recieved a carnation, the fraternity usually sings their sweetheart song. (when my new member class did this, the Phi Kappa Tau's cames over and sang the "i wanna grow old with you" from adam sandlers wedding singer. heh heh)

sometimes the current members of the sorority will have a thank you song to sing to the fraternity guys afterwards. ours was pretty dirty but they got a good laugh outta it.

overally it's a really cute way to introduce your new members to greek life and fraternities without having a full on party.

marissa

XOcrlstln · #5 05-02-2002, 03:11 PM

We have something like this, but it is called serenades.

One day in the fall, after everyone has dinner (we all have dinner and chapter on the same evening), all the fraternities visit all the sororities. There's a big schedule to make sure it goes smoothly, specially since the fraternities outnumber the sororities by over 2:1.

So anyways, the girls have already practiced songs, usually popular songs that have had some words changed to reflect the fraternity name, the sorority name and greek life. (The girls stand outside the houses with the NM in front).

The boys come along and serenade us (particularly the NMs), and we serenade them back, this goes back and forth till one side gives up. Then the boy pledges come up and introduce themselves to the girl NMs. They give us flowers, however not all the girls get flowers. It kind of becomes a contest to see who gets flowers, as the flowers are typically given to the prettiest girl, or the girl that all the guys know from the dorms or whatever. They typically also give us kisses on the cheek. The flowers range from carnations to roses, etc.

In addition, the sorority chapter houses are fairly close together, so it also becomes a competition between sororities as to who has the best songs and loudest singing.

We also typically have at least one song in reserve (and so do the boys) as a kind of mean song, all in jest of course. For example, this year we used "This Kiss." We changed the words to "...don't need another frat guy..........kiss this, kiss this...."

It's lots of fun, and it gives everyone a chance to see the new fall NM classes for each chapter. Hope this helps out a little.

XOCrlstln

tridgirl · #6 05-02-2002, 03:35 PM

I don't know if its the same as what you are thinking of, but we sing for standards. Each sorority and fraternity has a standard, a piece of wood painted with letter, symbols, etc. that we use for intermural, rush etc. To get the standards back we sing to eachother in the main hall of the greek dorm. You stand up in the balcony if you are getting sung to in order to get a standard back, and on the bottom if you are singing to get the standard back. The songs rang, we have some favorites we sing and a few that have been around for a LONG time. Afterwards some frats give the girls flower or host a social for our new members. In case I didnt' make it clear its only the new members that sing for standards, but we all go watch and big's take pics of thier littles singing. Its a contest to see how many standards you can steal and get sung to for. Sometimes frats will steal other stuff from our chapter room, but we try to discourage that. We also have large greek letters that we display in the windows of our breezeways of our wings, these use to get stolen all the time (making us bi deltas and then just delta), but we screwed them down for good. Singing for standards was one of the things I remember most from being a NM and we loved making up the songs, dances to go with the songs deciding what to wear, like all the girls in red tops and black pants etc.

dzsaigirl · #7 05-02-2002, 03:44 PM

We do the flowers, but we get roses. They do NOT kiss us! They give new members, but sometimes everyone a rose and then they sing and we sing one serious song and then our funny song (which the guys know and will sing with us).

bgsugirlie · #8 05-02-2002, 09:04 PM

XOcrlstln....

The song you changed the words to sounds fun...you gotta share the whole thing with us

xo_sue · #9 05-03-2002, 12:28 PM

XOCrlstln,

Am I the only one or does the fraternity's tradition of only giving flowers to the prettiest/most popular girls and not to ALL the new pledges- seem...well....mean?

As a pledge- you are already worried about fitting into this new sorority and then in front of all your sisters- you get ignored.

I'm not saying this against you at all- the fraternity, I feel, should change its tradition.

Thanks!
Sue

KarenC725 · #10 05-03-2002, 01:41 PM

Quote:

Originally posted by xo_sue
XOCrlstln,

Am I the only one or does the fraternity's tradition of only giving flowers to the prettiest/most popular girls and not to ALL the new pledges- seem...well....mean?

As a pledge- you are already worried about fitting into this new sorority and then in front of all your sisters- you get ignored.

I'm not saying this against you at all- the fraternity, I feel, should change its tradition.

Thanks!
Sue

I thought the same thing when I read it.

XOcrlstln · #11 05-03-2002, 02:11 PM

Well it is all in the eyes of the beholder. "The Prettiest" is just what everyone believes to be the reason, but since the boys of each fraternity buy the flowers themselves, 100+ flowers per guy would get expensive. They only have a limited number of flowers, and they give them selectively, so in theory it is the "prettiest."

However, I can see what you mean. Luckily, it isn't the "prettiest" always, and even then, different men will think the "prettiest" is different. And lastly, our men are very respectful, and they get good guidance from their active brothers, everyone walks away with at least one flower!!!!! So it is not so selective and exclusive as it might have sounded originally. Sorry for not making that clear.