Rite Of Passage

A lifetime is divided by many years, years into days, days into hours, and hours into minutes. But out of these minutes, some stand out the most making our most memorable of our memories. Whether you felt joy, anger, or sadness, it is the way that we felt at that second what makes us remember that moment and what made us change from who we were. It is an experience where you know you can’t go back. In the following passage, I will talk about my rite of passage.

There are different rites of passage for every culture, whether it be the tradition of passing on a family heirloom or testing for another level of responsibility and/or maturity. In ¨The Medicine Bag¨ it Martin explains how his grandfather granted him the family heirloom, the medicine bag. Meanwhile in the video ¨Apache Girl´s Rite of Passage¨ Dachina tests herself so she can transition from childhood to womanhood.

Arguably the most important step within the African rites of passage is the transition ritual. This ritual symbolizes that the young men have

In Conrad Philip Kottak’s “Rite of Passage” he mentions the three stages of a rite of passage. Anthropologist Arnold Van Gennep defines these stages as Separation, Margin, and Aggregation. Victor Turner, another anthropologist, focused on Margin, which he referred to as liminality. Not only can a rite of passage be an individual experience, but it can also be a communal experience which Turner called “communitas.” Many of us experience this “communitas” in different ways such as my Hispanic culture that experiences quinceneras. Quinceneras are a rite of passage for young girls’ transition from adolescence to womanhood. I for one never experienced this rite of passage.

In the Lakota tribe people performed both the rite of passage and the rite of purification as a part of their spiritual practice. A rite of passage marks one 's stage of life into another and is often what most people observe in their lives. Rites of passage include birthdays, graduations, weddings, etc., basically any phase in one 's life that gives that individual a new role in society. On the other hand, the rite of purification was to purify one’s mind, body and soul of its impurities. It is a ritual performed to seek the benefits of better health and preventing corruptions spiritually and mentally.

The Rite of Passage is about young females who file their teeth down into points. This ritual is done to show their soul, and to beautify yourself. The teeth sharpening is done in Indonesia specifically to the Mentawai tribe, to serve everlasting life, and to purify your soul.

A rite of passage is defined as a ceremony marking a significant transition or an important event or achievement, both regarded as having great meaning in lives of individuals. In Sharon Olds' moving poem "Rite of Passage", these definitions are illustrated in the lives of a mother and her seven-year-old son. The seriousness and significance of these events are represented in the author's tone, which undergoes many of its own changes as the poem progresses.

Rituals around the world all teach valuable lessons that help initiates see the value and importance of life. Each culture has different rituals that provide experiences for their youth to learn these valuable lessons of life. Many coming of age rituals are intense procedures. The Amazon's Satere Mawé youth enter adulthood through the bullet-ant glove initiation, teaching courage and endurance, and the crocodile scaring ritual that the men from the Sepik River in Papua New Guinea participate in teaches them pain and accomplishment.

‘Bar Mitvah’ is an important and time-honoured rite of passage which is a ‘coming of age’ milestone for a boy who reaches his 13th birthday. The term ‘Bar Mitzvah’ literally means ‘son of the commandment.’ This celebration formally and publicly marks the obligation of the child of 13 years old (12 for girls), to observe the commandments. This ritual traditionally recognises that a young person has reached the age when he or she is no longer a minor according to Jewish law and thereby took on new religious privileges and responsibilities of an adult.

Originally developed by anthropologist Arnold van Gennep in the early 20th century in his book Rites de Passage, the term liminality refers to the concept in which participants are in the threshold stage of disorientation and suspension from the previous social norm that they were used to. When an individual goes through a rite of passage—also coined by van Gennep—he is cut off from his “old life” and is born again into a new person. However, before he can fully become a new person and finish his rite of passage, he is suspended in a liminal stage that bridges the old self with the newly acknowledged self. In other words, he is in a stage of disorientation and amorphous identity. Found throughout all

Many people have experienced a Rite of Passage at least once in their lives without recognizing it. Experiencing a Rite of Passage is necessary to becoming an adult. A Rite of Passage can be both formal and informal, they both indicate a shift from one state to another. Formal Rites of Passages are weddings, Quinceañeras, and Bar Mitzvah, whereas informal Rites of Passages are a person’s first kiss, first job, and or the loss of a person 's virginity. Julia Alvarez focuses on the process and idea of Quinceañeras in her article "Selections from Once Upon A Quinceañera." Also included in this article is Jaider Sánchez that witnessed the sexual part of the ritual and Isabella Martinez Wall who talks about the benefits of the ritual on her life.Although many people believe that experiencing a Rites of Passage is not directly related to one 's self identity, these rituals both informal and formal do in fact affect one 's personal identity.

Sharon Olds, born 1942, the author of the dark poem, Rite of Passage which is a poem describing a mother observing her first grade sons birthday party. Given the time Sharon Olds would have been growing up, she was born three years before the Holocaust ended, she got to witness first-hand the world repairing itself after the DISASTER , not just read about it, which for me personally adds a new level of disturbance to the text. She wrote in a way that is brutally honest and it talks about a topic that not everyone can stomach. It hit one of the key flaws of humans, we are constantly trying to one up each other, and lose our innocence and that in itself is tragic. In the poem it is children, ages six and seven.

A rite of passage is something that happens when person goes from one stage of life to another. When a person goes through a rite of passage their social stats changes. The majority of the time it is used to describe a child going from a child to an adult, but it can also be for many other reasons. In Africa marriage is a very important rite of passage. There is an African Proverb that says “A man without a wife is like a vase without flowers”. In Africa they celebrate the first rain, the first harvest, and the birth of a child along with marriage. In this culture marriage symbolizes a new life. Marriage is the most celebrated rite of passage ever since the African culture has been around. Africans believe that it is not the human right

Preparations such as learning how to read the hebrew language, advancing to read the Torah and then learning their specific Haftorah section which is read front to back, which is the section that they will be read in one of their speeches. Bar Mitzvahs traditionally take place in Temple during a normal Saturday morning session after the boy’s 13th birthday. The Bar Mitzvah (boy) will be leading this Saturday session, and it is open to all members of the temple along with their family members or close friends whom they wish to attend and watch them make this transformation from child to man. The service tends to begin with a song and a moment of meditation. Following this the Bar Mitzvah (boy) is presented with a Tallit by their parents, and as it is being given to them the Rabbi is explaining the importance and significance of this religious garb to those in attendance. After this the Bar Mitzvah (boy) begins leading the service from the bima, a raised platform with a reading desk, whilst being assisted by the Rabbi. The participant then carries the Torah from the Ark, which houses it through the congregation up to the bima following a specific path, to begin the Torah passing ceremony from one generation to another until it ends with the Bar Mitzvah (boy) as the most recent member of the family to ascend into adulthood. Next the Torah reading is divided into 4 parts, 3 people, family

p. 484). It is a method of making this transition from girl to woman easier.