Freemasons in Wilmington - Handshakes and Passwords

As promised, for this week's edition of "Freemasons in Wilmington" we will talk about those secret handshakes and passwords that everyone wants to know about, but first a short history lesson.  Back in the time during the great cathedral building days throughout Europe, there was a great need for skilled labor to build such magnificent buildings and with great skill came great pay.  As new building projects would spring up all over Europe, stone masons from every country (as long as it was not to country that they were in a war with at the time) would flock to these great building projects seeking work, lending their skill to its construction and receiving great pay in return. Now just imagine a world where not everyone knows English and translation books haven't been invented yet and everyone is looking for work. In an effort to avoid mass confusion on these building projects, the ancient stone masons developed passwords and handshakes that would identify one stone mason to the other and what skill each mason would have.  Typically there were three classes, entered apprentices, fellow crafts and master masons.  Entered apprentices being the newest and youngest and master masons, the older and more skilled workman.  So depending on what handshake and password was offered to identify one another, it would determine what class of worker the man was, his skill level and ultimately what he would receive for pay.  The reason for all the secrecy was to avoid lesser class or lesser skilled workers from receiving higher skilled work and pay.  The ancient stone masons not only kept their passwords and handshakes secret, but the very method in which they did their work to protect their way of life and means of supporting their families.  In modern Freemasonry, in honor of the ancient stone masons and their traditions, we continue on with the three levels of degrees or classes, being entered apprentice, fellow craft and master mason.  Typically all Freemasons today are master masons, the entered apprentice and fellow craft class are typically initiatory classes that a member goes thru to join the fraternity.  And as just with the ancient stone masons, modern Freemasons have passwords and handshakes which identifies which class he may be.  In some states, men are required to give these passwords and handshakes to enter a lodge room, but here in Massachusetts all we need to do is just present a valid dues card.  So as you can see the talk about secret passwords and handshakes is nothing more than a simple way of identifying one another which really isn't used that much at all today.  But Freemasons are not the only ones with handshakes and passwords. Other groups such as the Boy Scouts along with most college fraternities and sororities have handshakes and passwords as well.  But just figuring out a handshake or password, isn't the key to belonging to a group.  You are probably asking yourself then why have handshakes and passwords in the first place?  The simple answer is this, today's modern Freemasonry is all about tradition and honoring the past.  The Grand Constitution by which modern Freemasonry was founded is actually older than the Constitution of the United States and hasn't change much in over 300 years.  Today's Freemasonry honors the traditions of the past so that we can carry them forward to the next generation.  Our passwords and handshakes are just one small part of our great traditions and there are many more.  If you would like to find out what they are, and  if you are a man 18 years of age or older and believe in a higher order (for you conspiracy theorists, all that mean is you can't be an atheist), than come on down to 32 Church Street and find out for yourself what you are missing. 

In next week's edition I will talk about how long it takes for a man to become a Master Mason in Massachusetts and what a man should expect in regards to his  commitment to the Fraternity.