Sorority Rituals - Reflections On Rites of ... - Mari Ann Callais

Not all participants indicated that the values and behavior of their sorority chapter
paralleled their personal values. One of the participants indicated that Greek life has challenged
her “morals”: “I don’t think that I learned or got my morals from my sorority, I think that I
brought them with me. . . . I think that my morals are actually challenged by a lot of the aspects
of Greek Life.”
Religious Beliefs
Several of the participants stated that they valued the ritual ceremony experience because
it was similar to religious types of ceremonies that have been important to them. Some of the
participants used words such as “sacred” and “spiritual” to exemplify the parallels that they
perceived between the sorority ritual and religious ceremonies. One participant stated, “Most of
the women in my chapter link ritual to a religion or spiritual connection and the women that
aren’t that way tend to have a harder time linking ritual to their lives.” Several of the sorority
women view ritual as “what brings us closer to one another and God. It is kind of hard to
explain…for me, it all brings you back to God and the Bible.” “Ritual is almost like a church
service. It is very solemn, contemplative, formal and you get the feeling like you are in a church.”
One woman said that she actually realized what ritual was through a bible study:
It took me about a year and a half to really get ritual . . . it was actually weird because
during bible study I started realizing what ritual is about . . . it’s cool because that is how I
learned and realized what ritual meant to me.
Yet another said:
Our ritual ceremony is simple and not very complex. I think that it has simplified my life
as I focus on my Christianity, my faith . . . I think that is what was really strengthened by
our ritual . . . our ritual has helped me become and understand who God is and what He
has given us.
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