Sorority Adopts New Ritual for Ring Pass

Perhaps the oldest and most unique tradition the members of any sorority will experience is “Ring Pass”. This ceremony is traditionally held when a sister in the chapter gets engaged, and it serves as a time to share in the excitement and joy that comes with finding one’s soulmate.

Recently, a special ritual has been added to modernize this sacred tradition. When a sister and her new boy begin “talking,” there will now be a phone pass, allowing 200 of her closest friends to extensively analyze what each “lol” and emoji could mean for the potential relationship.

This ritual provides each sister with the opportunity to provide their own insightful interpretation of the seemingly very personal text thread. From the time it takes for the significant other to respond, to how many exclamation marks he used, every member can work to defend the bond of sisterhood.

Courtney Fanning, an active member of Delta Gamma, has seen a lot of improvements since the new ritual has been enacted.

“I was able to help my pledge class sister out,” Fanning said.  “She didn’t even realize that when a guy texted her and asked her to work on homework together, it meant he was totally into her and wanted to take their relationship to the next level. It was a total DTR.”

In Ol’ Army days, the ring pass ritual included several phases to make very clear exactly what was going on in each girl’s romantic relationships.

Phase 1: Letters – The male in the relationship gives corresponding sorority girl his letters to wear in the form of a T-shirt or Lavalier.

Phase 2: Pinning – This phase symbolizes a relationship is “going steady”. The male will “pin” his newly acquired girlfriend with his fraternity crest. This pin will later be passed around during the sorority pinning ceremony.

Phase 3: Ring Pass – This is the final phase, which signifies the completion of the “Ring by Spring” Initiative™. Once the sorority sister is given an engagement ring, there will be a chapter-wide ritual in which the engagement band will be circulated to each member, and all will hear the engagement story.

Sara Stockton, Director of Member Development, is spearheading the new tradition, now known as Phase 0.

“It was about time. All of those things were so outdated. Plus, guys these days communicate their feelings differently.”

This spring, the phone pass will be added for sororities across the nation to signify the first stages of the relationship. Who needs to be “going steady” when you can be “talking”?

 

-5K for Yell