Fraternal order

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This article is about fraternities organised as orders. For brotherhoods in general, see Fraternity. For orders in general, see Order.

A fraternal order is a

mutual organisations
take the form of a fraternal order.

Fraternal societies are often divided geographically into units called lodges or

oaths, and more or less elaborate symbolism
, as in chivalric orders.

Examples

The

Fraternal Order of Police, while yet others are focused on academic traditions.[2][3][4]

In the more social type, each

Independent Order of Foresters
. There are typically reciprocal agreements between lodges within an order, so that if members move to other cities or countries, they can join a new lodge without an initiation period.

The ceremonies are fairly uniform throughout an order. Occasionally, a lodge might change the order that it is affiliated to, two orders might merge, or a group of lodges will break away from an order and form a new one. For example, the Independent Order of Foresters was set up in 1874 when it separated from the

Ancient Order of Foresters, also called Foresters Friendly Society, which itself was formed from the Royal Foresters Society
in 1834.

Consequently, the histories of some fraternal orders and friendly societies are difficult to follow. Often there are different, unrelated organisations with similar names.

See also

References

  1. ^ "Fraternal Meaning | Best 14 Definitions of Fraternal".
  2. ^ "Adventure in Friendship: A History of The National Panhellenic Conference" (PDF). National Panhellenic Conference. Archived from the original (PDF) on June 28, 2013. Retrieved November 23, 2016.
  3. ^ "Fraternity Apparel". Archived from the original on November 24, 2016. Retrieved November 23, 2016.
  4. ^ Stevens, Albert C. (1907). Cyclopedia of Fraternities: A Compilation of Existing Authentic Information and the Results of Original Investigation as to the Origin, Derivation, Founders, Development, Aims, Emblems, Character, and Personnel of More Than Six Hundred Secret Societies in the United States. E. B. Treat and Company.
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