Rites of Passage
A rite of passage is a ritual event that marks a person's progress from one status to another. It is a universal phenomenon which can show anthropologists what social hierarchies, values and beliefs are important in specific cultures.
Rites of passage are often ceremonies surrounding events such as other milestones within puberty, coming of age, marriage and death. Initiation ceremonies such as baptism, confirmation and bar or bat Mitzvah are considered important rites of passage for people of their respective religions.
Various "Rites of Passage"
In "Ihe Scene"
Various BDSM groups and/or individuals recognize a series of collars:
- Collar of Consideration
- Day Collar
- Formal (or Slave) Collars
- Protection Collars and Mentors
- Turian collars
- Training Collars
- Collar (BDSM)
Bar Mizvah
- Wikipedia article: Bar Mitzvah
According to Jewish law, when Jewish children reach 13 years of age for boys and 12 years of age for girls, they become responsible for their actions, and "become a Bar or Bat Mitzvah" (English: Daughter (Bat) or Son (Bar) of the commandment). In many Conservative and Reform synagogues, girls celebrate becoming a Bat Mitzvah at age 12, along with boys at 13. This also coincides with physical puberty. Prior to this, the child's parents hold the responsibility for the child's adherence to Jewish law and tradition. After this age, children bear their own responsibility for Jewish ritual law, tradition, and ethics and are privileged to participate in all areas of Jewish community life. When used in English, the term also refers to the ceremony itself.
Breeching
- Wikipedia article: Breeching
Breeching was the occasion when a small boy was first dressed in breeches or trousers. From the mid-16th century until the late 19th or early 20th century, young boys in the Western world were unbreeched and wore gowns or dresses until an age that varied between two and eight. Breeching was an important rite of passage in the life of a boy, looked forward to with much excitement. It often marked the point at which the father became more involved with the raising of a boy
Coming of age
Coming of age is a young person's transition from adolescence to adulthood.
- Wikipedia article: Coming of age
Débutante ball
- Wikipedia article: Débutante ball
A débutante (from the French débutante, "female beginner") is a young lady from an aristocratic or upper class family who has reached the age of maturity, and as a new adult, is introduced to society at a formal "début" presentation. Originally, it meant the young woman was eligible to marry, and part of the purpose was to display her to eligible bachelors and their families with a view to marriage within a select upper-class circle. Débutantes may be recommended by a distinguished committee or sponsored by an established member of an elite society. In the Southern United States, débutantes are also referred to as Southern belles. The male equivalent of a débutante is a "beau".
Début presentations vary by regional culture and are also frequently referenced as "débutante balls," "cotillion balls" or "coming-out" parties. The male equivalent is often referred to as "beautillion ball". A lone débutante might have her own début, or she might share it with a sister or other close relative. Modern débutante balls are often charity events: the parents of the débutante donate a certain amount of money to the designated cause, and the invited guests pay for their tickets. These balls may be elaborate formal affairs and involve not only "debs" but junior débutantes, escorts and ushers, flower girls, and pages as well.
Dokimasia
- Wikipedia article: Dokimasia
In Ancient Greece, Dokimasia was the name used at Athens to denote the process of ascertaining the capacity of the citizens for the exercise of public rights and duties.
If, for instance, a young citizen was to be admitted among the epheboi, he was examined in an assembly of his district to find out whether he was descended on both sides from Athenian citizens, and whether he possessed the physical capacity for military service. All officials, too--even the members of the Boule, the Council of 500--had to submit to an examination before entering upon their office. The purpose of this was to ascertain, not their actual capacity for the post, which was presupposed in all candidates, but their descent from Athenian citizens, their life and character, and (in the case of some offices which involved the administration of large sums) even the amount of their property.
First haircut
- Wikipedia article: First haircut
The first haircut for a human has special significance in certain cultures and religions. It can be considered a rite of passage or a milestone.
Wikipedia sub articles
- 1.United States babies
- 1.1 Native American babies
- 1.2 African American boys
- 1.3 African Caribbean boys
- 2 Mongolian babies
- 3 Orthodox Jews
- 3.1 Orthodox boys
- 4 Indian babies
- 4.1 Hindu babies
- 4.2 Muslim babies
- 4.3 Maliku babies
- 5 Chinese babies
- 6 Polish boys
- 7 Ukrainian babies
- 8 Yazidi boys
Genpuku
- Wikipedia article: Genpuku
Genpuku or genbuku was an historical Japanese coming-of-age ceremony. The etymology is atypical; in this case gen means "head" and fuku means "wearing". The ceremony is also known as kakan, uik?buri, kanrei, shufuku, and hatsu-motoyui.
To mark the entry to adult life of boys between the ages of 11 and 17 (typically of about age 12), they were taken to the shrines of their patron kami. There they were presented with their first adult clothes, and their boys' hairstyles were changed to the adult style. They were also given new adult names.
In Heian times, the ceremony was restricted to the sons of noble and samurai families. During the Muromachi era, it gradually spread to include men of lower ranks.
The equivalent ceremony for women was called mogi; this was performed for girls aged between 12 and 14, and was similarly based around the presentation of adult clothing.
In modern Japan, these ceremonies have been replaced by annual coming-of-age ceremonies for 20-year-olds of both sexes called seijin shiki, or by a ceremony held in school for students who have turned 15 years of age called a risshi-shiki, literally "standing hope ceremony" in which children stand in front of the school and declare their goals for the future.
Graduation
- Wikipedia article: Graduation
Graduation is the action of receiving or conferring an academic degree or the ceremony that is sometimes associated, where students become Graduates. Before the graduation, candidates are referred to as Graduands. The date of graduation is often called degree day. The graduation itself is also called commencement, convocation or invocation. At the University of Cambridge, the occasion on which most graduands receive their BA degree is known as general admission. After degree completion, graduates can be referred to by their graduating year. In the United States and Canada, it is also used to refer to the advancement from a primary or secondary school level.
When ceremonies are associated, they usually include a procession of the academic staff and candidates. Beginning at the secondary school level in the United States, the candidates will almost always wear academic dress, and increasingly faculty will do the same. At the college and university level, the faculty will usually wear academic dress at the formal ceremonies, as will the trustees and degree candidates. "Graduation" at the college and university level occurs when the presiding officer confers degrees upon candidates, either individually or en masse, even if graduates physically receive their diploma later at a smaller college or departmental ceremony.
Guan Li
- Wikipedia article: Guan Li
The Guan Li is the Confucian coming of age ceremony. The name Guan Li refers to the ceremony for men, while the Ji Li refers to the one for women.
The age of the person is usually 20 and during the ceremony, the person obtains a style name. These ceremonies are now rarely practiced in China, but there has been a recent resurgence, especially from those who are sympathetic to the Hanfu movement.
Munchu
Munchu means a descendant group of patrilineal people who share a common ancestor. People of Okinawa share a culture that values ancestors very much. This system of beliefs started with the development of a warrior class in the society sometime during the 17th century. The most visible symbol of the clan are the large graves where all members are interned.
Poy Sang Long
- Wikipedia article: Poy Sang Long
The Poy Sang Long ("Festival [of the] Crystal Sons") is a rite of passage ceremony among the Shan peoples, in Myanmar (also known as Burma) and in neighbouring Northern Thailand, undergone by boys at some point between seven and fourteen years of age. It consists of taking novice monastic vows and participating in monastery life for a period of time that can vary from a week to many months or more. Usually, a large group of boys are ordained as novice monks at the same time.
It can also be observed in neighbouring Thailand, where Shan immigrants have brought over the traditions from Myanmar. The ceremony goes on for three days, as the boys (dressed up like princes in imitation of the Lord Buddha, who was himself a prince before setting out on the religious path) spend the entire time being carried around on the shoulders of their older male relatives. On the third day, they are ordained, and enter the monastery for a period of at least one week, and perhaps many years.
Quinceanera
- Wikipedia article: Quinceanera
Main article: Quinceanera
Quinceañera (sometimes also called Fiesta Quinceañera, or simply quinces) is the celebration of a girl's fifteenth birthday in parts of Latin America and elsewhere in communities of immigrants from Latin America. This birthday is celebrated differently from any other birthday, as it marks the transition from childhood to young womanhood. The celebration, however, varies significantly across countries, with celebrations in some countries taking on, for example, more religious overtones than in others.
In Argentina, the celebration begins with the arrival of the teenager, wearing a special dress, and generally accompanied by her father. The location, if indoors, commonly has its entrance specially adorned for the occasion. The father and daughter duo make their entry through this front-door entrance at the sound of music, while friends and relatives customarily give the father flowers (usually roses). After this, the ceremony of the waltz begins, in which the girl dances with all her friends and relatives. Normally the ball is divided into batches, between which are the dishes. The following order of events represents a common program:
- 1.Entrance, which is usually accompanied by slow songs
- 2.Waltz
- 3.Entree
- 4.First period of dancing
- 5.Main meal course
- 6.Second period of dancing
- 7.Dessert and video playback of the recorded birthday with her friends (Optional)
- 8.15-candle ceremony (Optional)
- 9.Third period of dancing
- 10.Toast, Cake cutting, Tapes
- 11.Karaoke Carnival (Optional: can also be a batucada)
Russefeiring
- Wikipedia article: Russefeiring in Norway
Russefeiring or Russ (singular and plural) is a participant in the traditional Norwegian videregående skole (equivalent to high school or the British equivalent to sixth form) graduation ceremony known as russefeiring (russ celebration). Russ are easily recognized by their distinctive overalls and caps (russeluer) resembling student caps. Tradition dictates that they wear the overall and the cap from the 1st to the 17th of May without interruption (except when sleeping), without washing any of them. Russ commonly drive cars, vans or buses painted in the same colour as their overalls and caps, often sporting large sound systems or lighting rigs.
Scarification
- Wikipedia article: Scarification
Scarifying involves scratching, etching, or superficially cutting designs, pictures, or words into the skin as a permanent body modification.
In the process of body scarification, scars are formed by cutting or branding the skin. Scarification is sometimes called cicatrization (from the French equivalent).
Scarification is usually more visible on darker skinned people than tattoos. Endorphins can be released in the scarification process that can induce a euphoric state. There are also religious and social reasons for scarification, as well as aesthetic, it is also seen as a form of self-expression.
Sweet Sixteen
- Wikipedia article: Sweet Sixteen
A sweet sixteen party is a type of birthday party in the United States and Canada celebrating a sixteenth birthday of a girl. Sweet sixteen parties mark a coming of age.
A sweet sixteen, like a wedding, can be extremely formal, casual, or semi-formal. Sweet sixteens can range from staying home doing homework to large affairs with a hired DJ, makeup and hair stylists, and renting out yachts and hotel ballrooms.
Candle-lighting ceremony
- Each of the 16 candles holds a special meaning
- The first candle is for the girl's parents.
- The second candle is for the siblings. (If there are no siblings, then this candle can represent the grandparents.)
- Candles 3, 4, 5 and 6 are for the rest of the family members.
- Candles 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13 and 14 are for friends.
- Candle 15 is for the girl's best friend or friends.
- The 16th candle is for a significant male, such as a boyfriend or good friend.
- Some add a 17th candle which represents good luck
Shoe ceremony
- The shoe ceremony is common at sweet sixteen parties, although they are more often seen in Quinceañeras. In this ceremony, the birthday girl sits down in a chair while her grandfather, uncle, godfather, or father approaches her with high heels on a decorative pillow. The girl would traditionally be wearing flat shoes, such as slippers, and the father ceremoniously helps her into her new high heels. This is symbolic of the girl transitioning into a woman.
Tiara ceremony
- This ceremony is similar to the shoe ceremony, except the mother approaches with a tiara instead of shoes. She places it on her daughters head to symbolize her becoming a woman. Sometimes this is combined with the shoe ceremony, so that two people approach the birthday girl, one with a pillow with high heels, and the other with a pillow with a tiara.
Mother-daughter dance
- The mother-daughter dance is a tradition that is also frequently performed at weddings. The girl and her mother dance to a slow-jazz song while everyone sits and watches.
Video montage
- At high end sweet sixteens, a DJ often brings along several televisions or a Video projectors to show a video montage set to music of the birthday girl containing pictures starting from when she was a baby and getting older, usually ending with pictures of her in her sweet sixteen dress. This is either made by the DJ with photos provided from the family of the birthday girl, by the parents, or by a sibling. The guests can either sit down and watch this montage, or it could be playing in the background while the guests dance.
Boys' sixteenth birthday party
- Although the Sweet Sixteen party is usually for girls, some families try to do something similar for their sons too. They may throw huge parties with big birthday cakes, usually displaying the boys' interests.
Sevapuneru
Turmeric ceremony in South India to mark menarche
- Etoro tribe
- Wikipedia article: Etoro people
In Papua New Guinea, young boys must begin ingesting their elders semen, and then stop doing it at a certain age.
Getting of the first identity card (e.g. communist regime in the Czechoslovakia try to replace all religious rituals by secular one; identity card was given at the age of 15)
In BDSM
In BDSM relationships, the collar (and the collaring ceremony) are an integral part of the Master/slave relationship. Collars can be made of leather, chain, iron, steel or stainless steel. They can also be a simple piece of jewelry. It isn't so much the material of the collar as the meaning behind it.
In Religion
Various "Rites of Passage" are
- Baptism
- First Eucharist and First Confession (especially First Communion in Catholicism)
- Confirmation (Catholics, Orthodox, and mainline Protestant churches)
- Bar Mitzvah and Bat Mitzvah in Judaism
- Rumspringa
- Circumcision, mainly in Judaism (Bris)
- Diving for the Cross, in some Orthodox Christian churches
- Sa?sk?ra a series of Sacraments in Hinduism.
- Shinbyu in Theravada Buddhism
- Vision quest in some Native American cultures
- "Quinceañera" many who celebrate include a Catholic mass at church
- Coming of Age in Unitarian Universalism
- More information is available at [ Wikipedia:Rites_of_passage#Religion ]
Others
- Secular coming of age ceremonies for non-religious youngsters who want a rite of passage comparable to the religious rituals like Confirmation
- Walkabout
- Batizados in Capoeira
- Black Belt Grading in Martial Arts
- Castration in some sects and special castes
- Virginity
Armed forces
- Accolade
- Baptism by fire
- Battlefield commission, equivalent to ennoblement for valor or knighting on the field in the ancien régime
- Berserker, berserkergang - an initiatory Nordic warrior-rite; the young Scandinavian warrior of old or Viking had to symbolically transform into a bear or wolf before he could become an elite warrior (cf. Cuchulain's transformation)
- Counting coup
- Krypteia - a "robber-baron" or "bandit-warrior" rite of the military youths of ancient Sparta
- Pas d'armes
- Trial by battle, or Judicium Dei (Judgment of God)
- U.S. Marines: Crucible
- U.S. Navy: Battle Stations
- Naval (military and civilian) crossing the equator
- In the U.S. Navy and Royal Navy, wetting-down is a ceremony in which a Naval officer is ceremonially thrown into the ocean upon receiving a promotion.
- U.S. Army: Victory Forge
- In many military organizations, as in civilian groups, new conscripts are sometimes subjected by "veterans" to practical jokes, ranging from taking advantage of their naïveté to public humiliation and physical attacks; see Hazing.
- Soldiers and sailors may also be hazed again on obtaining a promotion.
- In Greece conscription is mandatory and has been historically linked with maturing of a man. *The army was historically perceived as the "natural" way to go and as a final 'school' of socialization and maturing for young men before their come out to the real world; also it would be the first time a young man would find himself on his own and away from home. Consequently, draft dodgers, deserters, or men unable to serve encountered prejudice, were often frowned upon and deemed useless by conservative societies
Academic groups
Some academic circles such as dorms, fraternities, teams and other clubs practice
- Szecskáztatás, a mild form of hazing (usually without physical and sexual abuse) practiced in some Hungarian secondary schools. First-year junior students (szecskák [singular form: szecska]) are publicly humiliated through embarrassing clothing and senior students branding their faces (with marker pens); it is sometimes also a contest, with the winners usually earning the right to organise the next event.
Entrance into Medicine and Pharmacy (University) :
- White Coat Ceremony
- In Spanish universities of the Modern Age, like Universidad Complutense in Alcalá de Henares, upon completion of his studies, the student was submitted to a public questioning by the faculty, who could ask sympathetic questions that let him excel or tricky points. If the student passed he invited professors and mates to a party. If not, he was publicly processioned with donkey ears.
- Entrance to the profession of Engineer
- The Ritual of the Calling of an Engineer Also known as the Iron Ring Ceremony
See also
- Pilgrimage
- Line-crossing ceremony
- The Seclusion of Girls at Puberty
- Annaprashana
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