At the University of Colorado there is a strong Greek life culture and there are many traditions, which accompany this group of the university.  Many sororities and fraternities have songs that are song at various times of the year, which help signify different bonding moments for the group of guys or girls.  The informant describes that she learned the tradition on her bid night.

On “bid night” for the girls in a sorority all the freshman girls come back to the house in different rooms and take shots.  You also have to dress up in crazy clothes and you get your letters and your official sorority t-shirt with it’s letters.  You aren’t supposed to drink in your letters, but you do anyway.  During the night there is a chant that goes along with the drinking.  The chant goes as such: “Take a shot, take a shot, take a shot like a [insert sorority], if you can’t take a shot like a [insert sorority] can then why is the drink in your hand?”  All of the girls are taught this song and all yell it together at different points of the night.

I find the story of “bid night” for the sorority interesting as it indicates a classic example of a liminal period for the freshman girls who are not yet fully initiated into the sorority, but are not completely outside of the group.  The different traditions of dressing up crazily, taking shots with active sisters of the sorority, and learning and singing songs that have been part of the sorority for a long time indicate the freshman girls’ passage from being just a normal freshman non-affiliated with Greek life, to a full member.  The freshman girl’s earning their letters also indicates their progression in the liminal stage.  This story also shows how big of a role drinking plays in the culture and lifestyle of college kids during the twenty-first century.