Rite of Passage - Coming of Age

Coming of Age

In various tribal societies, entry into an age grade—generally gender-separated—(unlike an age set) is marked by an initiation rite, which may be the crowning of a long and complex preparation, sometimes in retreat.

  • Bar and Bat Mitzvah
  • Breeching
  • Coming of Age in Unitarian Universalism
  • Débutante ball
  • Dokimasia
  • Confirmation
  • Suffrage
  • First driver's license or other official identity card
  • First haircut
  • Jugendweihe in East Germany
  • First legal alcohol
  • Quinceañera
  • Russ in Norway
  • Scarification and various other physical endurances
  • Secular coming of age ceremonies for non-religious youngsters who want a rite of passage comparable to the religious rituals like confirmation
  • Seclusion of girls at puberty
  • Sevapuneru or Turmeric ceremony in South India to mark menstruation
  • Sweet Sixteen
  • Okuyi in several West African nations

Read more about this topic:  Rite Of Passage

Famous quotes containing the words coming of age, coming and/or age:

    Most of us don’t have mothers who blazed a trail for us—at least, not all the way. Coming of age before or during the inception of the women’s movement, whether as working parents or homemakers, whether married or divorced, our mothers faced conundrums—what should they be? how should they act?—that became our uncertainties.
    Anne Roiphe (20th century)

    That would be good both going and coming back.
    One could do worse than be a swinger of birches.
    Robert Frost (1874–1963)

    May Allah keep her
    And other wives from me. But this young slave
    For the Caliph? Well, only her thin mouth to save
    My soul I can’t forget, nor her slack eyes:
    The oasis of age is sand and lies.
    Allen Tate (1899–1979)