Symbols
Sashes: Ordeal, Brotherhood, Vigil Honor (from left to right)
Order of the Arrow pocket device
Arrowmen are identified by a white sash bearing a red arrow that is worn over their right shoulder. An Ordeal member wears a sash with a lone arrow. The Brotherhood member wears a sash bearing an arrow with a red bar at each end of the arrow. A Brotherhood member who has been awarded the Vigil Honor wears a sash with the same bars of as the Brotherhood sash at each end of the arrow, and a Vigil Honor triangle on the center of the shaft. The triangle bears three small arrows arranged in a counterclockwise direction. Members wear the sash at Order of the Arrow functions and special Scouting activities when members need to be identified as Arrowmen rendering special services. The OA sash is not worn at the same time as the merit badge sash, nor worn folded in the belt. The sash as a form of recognition dates to the founding of the Order and has a long history of changes in usage and design.
The OA Universal Ribbon is worn suspended from the right uniform shirt pocket button. Vigil Honor recipients may add the Vigil Honor pin to the ribbon. Lodge affiliation is indicated by the wearing of the lodge emblem (commonly known as a lodge flap), an embroidered patch worn on the right pocket flap of the uniform shirt. Each lodge flap has a unique design, generally reflecting the name, geography or history of the lodge. Many lodges, against national policy, have flaps which distinguish different membership levels. Special issues of flaps may be created to commemorate anniversaries and other events and are a popular item for those who engage in Scouting memorabilia collecting.
Arrowmen also exchange a special handshake as a token of brotherhood, along with other signs and passwords. A signature acronym, WWW (Wimachtendienk, Wingolauchsik, Witahemui - The Brotherhood of Cheerful Service) (in the language of the Leni Lenape tribe) is often depicted in publications, regalia, etc. by official use of National Order of the Arrow.
Read more about this topic: Order Of The Arrow
Famous quotes containing the word symbols:
“Luckless is the country in which the symbols of procreation are the objects of shame, while the agents of destruction are honored! And yet you call that member your pudendum, or shameful part, as if there were anything more glorious than creating life, or anything more atrocious than taking it away.”
—Savinien Cyrano De Bergerac (1619–1655)
“The twentieth-century artist who uses symbols is alienated because the system of symbols is a private one. After you have dealt with the symbols you are still private, you are still lonely, because you are not sure anyone will understand it except yourself. The ransom of privacy is that you are alone.”
—Louise Bourgeois (b. 1911)
“If the Americans, in addition to the eagle and the Stars and Stripes and the more unofficial symbols of bison, moose and Indian, should ever need another emblem, one which is friendly and pleasant, then I think they should choose the grapefruit. Or rather the half grapefruit, for this fruit only comes in halves, I believe. Practically speaking, it is always yellow, always just as fresh and well served. And it always comes at the same, still hopeful hour of the morning.”
—Johan Huizinga (1872–1945)