Sorority traditions have been creating bonds between women across the world from the start. 

With recruitment now over, our feet can breathe a little easier, our faces hurt a little less since we’re not smiling 24/7 and we have our voices back due to the fact that we aren’t chanting and talking for two weeks straight anymore. There is so much work that goes into putting on an amazing recruitment each year, and from one year to the next, there’s always the same array of songs and chants that you can never seem to get out of your head.  While you may not realize it, all of this is part of a tradition within your sorority.

You’ve probably grown up with a variety of family traditions, whether it is eating at the same restaurant every year for your birthday because it’s your favorite or always opening your Christmas presents on Christmas Eve rather than Christmas morning. The traditions that your sorority keeps are no different. One of my personal favorite traditions that each sorority takes part in is the candle lighting ceremony whenever a sister gets engaged. This is a special time for both your newly engaged sister as well as the chapter as a whole. And who doesn’t love to awe over that rock on her hand?          

While what you hope will someday become a tradition may not always in fact stick, the traditions that are here to stay are worth taking part in each year. To name a few traditions in the sorority world, there are door songs, philanthropy events, annual date party themes, sisterhood events and rituals. You may just think of these as things sorority girls do, but there is a deeper meaning behind all of those traditions. Being able to relate to a sister from another school across the country is a way to share those traditions you have within your sorority.         

Each member of your sorority, whether at OU or not, shares a special bond with one another and are familiar with the traditions that your chapter holds. It’s fun to know that if you and your grandmother were both members of the same sorority, you would both have certain traditions you share, regardless of the large age gap and the fact that you both didn’t go to the same college. 

These are just a few reasons why carrying on traditions is so important. Carrying on traditions that were started years ago by other women in your sorority may not seem important now, but when you look back in ten years and remember those traditions that you and your sisters took part in each year, I hope that those memories will show the importance of keeping traditions going.