One has to eat the cookie in order for the fortune to come true. It is not enough to just read the little paper or else it will not come true. This is interesting because it promotes the idea that being wasteful is bad and will not do anything good for you.

“Letters” of each Greek house have symbolic meaning. New members or pledges cannot wear letters until initiated, for boys when pledging is over. They are the greek alphabetical letters of the full name of the greek sorority or fraternity. Boys pledge for one semester, girls do not “pledge” but rather initiated a few weeks after bid night. (Pledging is more of a fraternity aspect.) The significance of letters in the greek community represent the ideals, values, traditions, customs, and folklore of the house. Wearing these letters is also a physical symbol of pride. I think letters promote the exclusiveness of each house in that it distinguishes members from each other.

It is a legend that if you do not finish your bowl of rice that you will have bad skin. Little holes will develop in your skin from where the rice was made because food was wasted. Since wastefulness is an unattractive quality to the Chinese people, wasting their primary food will bring a physical unattractive quality. I find this traditional scolding a little annoying because when Chinese families all eat together there are usually courses after courses of food and so many plates to be eaten and much of the other food is not finished but the rice has to be. Rice is a very traditional dish but not the most delicious in my opinion.

The initiation ceremony for both sororities and fraternities introduces the pledge and officially welcomes all the new members to the chapter. It involves chants, bible verses, cloaks and, in my case, the drinking of a special beverage. Each house has a different sacred ceremony but each chapter of every house has the same nationally and has been the same for as long as the house was created. Aspects of the ceremony also involve robes in the colors that represent the sorority. It is a very cultish experience yet representational of that sorority. This ceremony has been done since the beginning of the chapter and passed on in its exact form for years. I found it very special yet cultish in the aspect it mimicked worship that was very specific to an organization,

A tradition in sororities and fraternities is that older girls in the pledge class above the new member class pick girls in that pledge class to be their “littles”, basically a little sister to have a closer bond. The same is done in fraternities. Fraternities and sororities can have families by having “older sisters” and “big brothers”. This is a way to make the greek community even smaller and have a smaller group within thousands of people. Each family grows as the years go on and create their own little culture within their group. I think greek families are great because they create a smaller group of people within the large community and makes bonds between girls and boys that would have otherwise not been as close. It can be very exclusive, though, and become naturally cliquey.