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

the participants referred to other members who held officer positions in their chapter and that
those women were the reason why ritual was important to them:
The president of my chapter is the real reason why I understand ritual and why I joined
my particular sorority. She embodies everything and she felt ritual and sisterhood were
very important. She taught the importance of ritual because it was important to her.
The participants referenced that having a position of responsibility in the chapter helped
them to learn and to understand ritual:
Being an officer, ritual is really important to know it. This all goes back to the more times
you see ritual, the more you know it and the more you understand it. It’s hard starting out
because it is a lot to take in and stuff. I definitely think it is about time and just depends
on the age of the person and how willing they are to learn about ritual. I think, also if
people begin to notice if you stray away from the way that they remember ritual to be
done, if something is not right and if there is one difference, people notice that and they
will be like, wait a minute, why did we do that this way. I think that proves to me that if
somebody comes to me and says wait something is different or how come we didn’t do
this even if there is one small detail that was overlooked that reassures me that the chapter
is kind of up to snuff and they are kind of well aware of what is supposed to be expected
of them. And I know for our chapter, every year we have a national consultant and we are
reviewed as to what we know about the ritual.
The participants seem to associate understanding ritual and knowing its importance with being an
officer or holding some level of responsibility in their chapter.
Ritual Ceremony and Behavior
While many of the comments made by the participants reflected the themes detailed in the
above sections, some of the participants made direct mention of their experience of ritual
impacting their behavior. Some of the participants indicated a clear connection to their behavior
as it relates to the ritual ceremonies, stating, “Ritual is like making a decision in everyday life. If
you are going to do it in ritual, you should believe it and do it and practice it in everyday life.”
Another participant explained that ritual set ideals for which to strive:
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