Recently, I have heard of
many Greek men at Longwood
lavaliering or preparing to
lavalier their girlfriends. With
Greek life being fairly big on
Longwood’s campus, I wanted
to dive deeper into the longtime
social Greek tradition and really
find out what it means to be
lavaliered. With a bulk of my
friends being Greek, I did not
find this investigation to be
hard at all. But what I actually
formed was a new opinion on the
importance of a man lavaliering
his girlfriend.
A Greek lavalier is a pendant
necklace that is given as a sign
of commitment and affection
from a member of a fraternity
to his girlfriend or mother.
Certain fraternities throughout
the United States host lavalier
ceremonies to present the female
with the Greek lavalier. This
ceremony is seen as a predictor
for more significant relationship
milestones to come, like an
engagement and then finally
marriage. But the Greek lavalier
does not just represent the male's
commitment, love and devotion
to his significant other, but also
to his fraternity and his brothers.
Sound serious? Well, whether
you want to think it or not,
lavaliering is a serious event and
milestone in a Greek man’s life.
Some people do not take it as
seriously as others, but after a
girl is lavaliered it is almost like
she is tied to the whole fraternity
and is ready to take the next
step with her significant other.
For this reason, I believe that is
why we have not seen so many
lavaliering ceremonies around
campus or why most men who
decide to lavalier their girlfriends
wait until their senior year. Also,
it’s possible that for many college
students, the fear of commitment,
the whole idea of “love forever,”
is just too much in this day and
age.
So after talking so much about
not only the relationship between
the male and female at the center
of the lavaliering ceremony and
its importance to them, I want
to emphasize the meaning of
a lavalier to a fraternity as a
whole. In order for a woman to
get approved to be lavaliered,
the brother must tell his chapter
at a meeting his intentions, and
the other brothers are able to
ask why he wants to lavalier the
woman and then, as a whole, they
decide whether or not to approve
the lavaliering. For the rest of
fraternity, approving a woman
to get lavaliered means they as a
chapter are giving their blessing
and approval of the woman who
is going to be lavaliered.
Shawn Anderson of Theta
Chi Fraternity had this to say
about his brother lavaliering
his longtime girlfriend, “We
always want to support all of our
brothers so I made it a priority
to attend the ceremony. It was
really beautiful to witness.”
But not all the brothers have to
attend the ceremony, although
most decide to attend to give
their brother support anyway.
A lavaliering ceremony usually
involves the brothers singing
a woman a special song. Then,
after the ceremony is finished,
everyone in attendance must
congratulate the girl individually
and express their happiness for
her.
As for the idea of “swallowing
the necklace,” if the couple
decides to break up, that’s not
true either. Well, at least not with
certain fraternities, and that is
how it should be. Yes, like I said
earlier, it is a serious matter, but
is it that serious? Why would
you ever force a man to swallow
a necklace when something as
common as a breakup happens?
No.
“We only think about the
positives and don’t bring up
swallowing the necklace, or
anything negative,” Anderson
went on to say.
So, whether it’s three months
or three years, a man can lavalier
his girlfriend as long as he is
willing to give her his devotion
of love and affection. To me, this
seems like an important step in
someone’s life and for those who
don’t find this serious, to me that
seems sad.
We take engagements seriously,
so why not take lavaliering just
as seriously? Yes, it might just be
a man placing a necklace with
Greek letters around a woman’s
neck, but isn’t that just like a
man placing a ring on a woman’s
left ring finger? It symbolizes
something deeper; it symbolizes
commitment and something that
is going to become something
even more beautiful in the future.
