Tag Archives: greek

Sorority Welcome Song

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Welcome Song Initiation/Ritual

  • Informant Info
    • Sophomore Year of Dartmouth College
  • Type of Lore
    • Verbal
  • Language
    • English
  • Country of Origin
    • United States
  • Social / Cultural Context
    • Dartmouth Sorority
  • Informant’s Comments
    • Taken very light-hearted. The sorority and those who wish to partake sing a welcome song to new members that replaces the lyrics of notorious “Sweet Home Alabama” with lyrics that are unique to the sorority. Only members of the sorority sing the song.
  • Collector’s Comments
    • Anonymity in order to not reveal identity of fraternity and informant. The seriousness with which the songs are treated varied greatly between southern houses and Dartmouth. The amount of time and material coordination was directionally proportional to seriousness/geographic location.
    • See “Bid Chant” post for example videos of sorority welcome songs

“TDX-mas”

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“TDX-mas” Initiation/RitualScreen Shot 2016-05-31 at 4.41.43 PM

  • Informant Info
    • Sophomore Year
  • Type of Lore
    • Customary
  • Language
    • English
  • Country of Origin
    • United States
  • Social / Cultural Context
    • Dartmouth Fraternity
  • Informant’s Comments
    • Taken light-hearted yet seriously as all brothers of the house partake in the festivity. The basement is completely covered in Christmas-styled wrapping paper. This is done for an end of the term party that the entire school is welcome to join.
  • Collector’s Comments
    • Anonymity in order to not reveal identity of fraternity and informant
    • Further research of publicly available fraternity information revealed that this practice is also done at other campuses that have this fraternity, such as MSU, dating back past 2010.
Link

Title: Drop your cups; How to not get your greek house shut down

Genre: Customary Folklore

S&S Folkore

Informant info: Daniel C. Reitsch, from Rockford, IL, VP at Chi Heorot Fraternity and Dartmouth class of 2016 President

Type of lore: Customary

Language: English

Country of Origin: U.S.A

Social / Cultural Context: Greek Houses tend to be lenient in regards to serving minors alcohol; therefore, they can find themselves in trouble if campus security discovers that they are doing such an act. Accordingly, campus security performs “walkthroughs” in which they knock on the fraternity door and then do a walkthrough to make sure that all college rules are being followed. Greek houses have rituals that they perform in order to make sure they pass walkthroughs.

Transcript: When minors who are drinking at a greek house hear or see one of the warning systems, they immediately get rid of whatever they are drinking. And if they don’t then fraternity brothers will slap the cups out of their hands. It is said that S & S officers will check students’ ID’s to make sure that they are of age to drink and the consequences for someone who is not of age and is drinking can be severe.  

Collector’s comments: The informant was very matter of fact about the rituals, he did acknowledge that he had never seen the bell system in use, but that it was a system that he had heard was used in the past very often.

Collected by Robert Moffitt, Class of 2016.

Link

Title: Flashing Lights; How to not get your greek house shut down

Genre: Customary Folklore

S&S Folkore

Informant info: Daniel C. Reitsch, from Rockford, IL, VP at Chi Heorot Fraternity and Dartmouth class of 2016 President 

Type of lore: Customary

Language: English

Country of Origin: U.S.A

Social / Cultural Context: Greek Houses tend to be lenient in regards to serving minors alcohol; therefore, they can find themselves in trouble if campus security discovers that they are doing such an act. Accordingly, campus security performs “walkthroughs” in which they knock on the fraternity door and then do a walkthrough to make sure that all college rules are being followed. Greek houses have rituals that they perform in order to make sure they pass walkthroughs.

Transcript: At some greek houses, when someone believes that S & S is at their door, they flicker the lights in the building in order to warn the other members of the house that S & S is at the door and is about to perform a walkthrough.  

Collector’s comments: This is a ritual I myself have witnessed on many a night out at Dartmouth. It is at the point of common knowledge that when the lights flash S&S is about to come into the basement. 

Collected by Robert Moffitt, Class of 2016.

Link

Title: Bells for S&S

Genre: Customary Folklore

S&S Folkore

Informant info: Daniel C. Reitsch, from Rockford, IL, VP at Chi Heorot Fraternity and Dartmouth class of 2016 President

Type of lore: Customary

Language: English

Country of Origin: U.S.A

Social / Cultural Context: Greek Houses tend to be lenient in regards to serving minors alcohol; therefore, they can find themselves in trouble if campus security discovers that they are doing such an act. Accordingly, campus security performs “walkthroughs” in which they knock on the fraternity door and then do a walkthrough to make sure that all college rules are being followed. Greek houses have rituals that they perform in order to make sure they pass walkthroughs.

Transcript: “At some greek houses, when someone believes that S & S is at their door, they initiate a buzzer or bell system to warn everyone in the house in case they are doing something that would get them in trouble.” 

Collector’s comments: The informant was very matter of fact about the rituals, he did acknowledge that he had never seen the bell system in use, but that it was a system that he had heard was used in the past very often.

 

Collected by Robert Moffitt, Class of 2016.

May 18th, 2016