I am a new MM and have been visiting different lodges, I noticed different practices in different states. For instance in Michigan a new MM receives his apron at his raising, in Florida he has to give back his MM catechism. In Canada a MM travels with his apron in the states he uses one provided by the lodge. I am sure there are more differences but why?
Sent from my iPad using
My Freemasonry mobile app
Although it is commonly believed that ritual was not written down at first and passed down by mouth to ear, this is not the norm. There are far too many jurisdiction that have their ritual in writing. These written rituals were written down from the beginning and the possibility of changes due to memory differences is only one cause and a small one. Most changes are due to deliberate choices.
1) Because when the ritual of any one particular new jurisdiction was made up from the building blocks of their collective older jurisdictions contributors/resources, those who fabricated it chose it to be different enough to make it noticeably different but not enough to change the overall impact.
2) Over time, a jurisdiction's rituals change based upon the collective input, attitudes and reasoning of the
committee on works due to internal and external social pressures.
And the biggie...
3) Ritual across the globe differs and in some major ways. Scotland is one example where every lodge has its own ritual and they all differ. Homogenized ritual in the USA is not the norm around the globe; it is the exception. USA ritual is mostly homogenous due to when it spread, how it spread, written exposes and collective efforts to deal with external/outside social pressures.
