Age Rituals For Females : The Bat Mitzvah, The Quinceanera, And The Sunrise Ceremony

At thirteen I knew that once I turned fourteen I needed to start planning everything out a year ahead. It is August 13 and I am officially fourteen and I’m excited because now I can start planning with my mother but she breaks news to me that she can’t afford this rite of passage. At first my only thought was “I hate this! All my friends are having a quince, why can’t I?” and I remember just loathing the fact that I wasn’t able to have one for quite some time. I understood where my mother was coming from. She was a single mother and was raising two other children other than myself so it must have been hard to say “No, you can’t have a quince.” She would tell me how much she wishes that she would have thrown the biggest party for my rite of passage.

Imagine you are dancing all night and you can't show any emotion, you can't show any exhaustion or tiredness. That is what Indian girls of the Apache tribe must go through. In class we have watched a video called “Apache Girl Rites of Passage.” In this video a girl named Dachina goes through a grueling journey to become a women. In addition to that story read a short story called “The Medicine Bag.” In the Medicine Bag a boy named Martin goes through his on struggles and rites of passage from his Lakota family traditions and his struggle of accepting his tribe. In addition to these stories I researched a tribe from Ethiopia called the Hamar tribe. The Hamar tribe has a much more scary rite of passage to become a man which a boy has to jump

The young girl originally wears flat shoes on her feet. At some point in the reception, she is given heels to wear. This transition from flats to heels symbolizes the young girl’s transformation from a young girl to a woman. Also at some point in the reception, the girl sits in a chair where everyone can see her and she is given a doll. This doll symbolizes the young girls’ childhood. In some families, the young girl then gives the doll to a younger family member, almost to say that she is moving past her childhood and onto her adulthood. Also she is given a crown, which symbolizes her transition to a

It was not abnormal for my parents to reflect on their experiences surrounding my birth on my birthdays, when family and friends had their own children or when they saw glimpses of my personality which reminded them that I have been “strong willed”, as they refer to it, from day one. In fact, the regularity in which the story was told, and details included in their remembrance, resulted in me envisioning the events as if I could recall them from my own memory. Although I never knew the true significance of birth stories prior to beginnings to read Gaskin’s memoirs, I have always been thankful for parents’ commitment to telling me how I came into this world and the details they included, as it has greatly influenced my feelings towards birth.

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.

A quinceanera is a tradition of celebrating a hispanic young girl’s coming of the age 15. At the quinceanera i will be wearing a blue ball gown. It will also have a tiara and a prayer book.. There will also be a unicorn Pinata!! The court that i will have will be wearing light pink gowns and black tuxedos. All of the family members from where ever we have them will be attending. Unless they are sick or some other reason like a family matter or something. The guests will be receiving tokens, to attend the celebration. The events will include very good food and music, and a waltz or dance performed by me, my court and my parents . The food at my quinceanera will

On the first morning to follow, the sun was yet to come out, I was dressed in my finest traditional clothes. Than I lay on the floor and was stretched by a female relative, other than a male or my father, but by my mom. It was a symbol of remolding myself, joints smoothed, and muscles massaged. As I got ready for that day, my hair is tied in a deerskin string and than my mother touched my face, she smiled and grabbed pieces of my hair in front and let it dangle on the sides of my face. Than I ran

Although the Quinceanera is a formal rites of passage that is supposed to signify maturity and purity, in this article it is portrayed as just a fancy coming of age party that does not shape one 's identity. “It is rare that a ritual alters the way a society is organized” (Alvarez 50). At the Quinceañera Expo, Alvarez noticed little girls walking around in lustrous dresses and tiaras in their hair (Alvarez, pg. 50). The ritual is similar to the American Sweet 16 than a coming

Firstly, Bat Mitzvah (daughter of commandant) have a great history. The modern Jews wanted to start marking the event when a girl become a woman. The Bar Mitzvah ceremony, designed for men, was a model for the Bat Mitzvah. The very first Bat Mitzvah took place in The United States in 1922 when Rabbi Moroder Gail Kaplan, the founder of Reconstructionism (it is more modern thinking than reform

In Meredith Small’s article Our Babies, Ourselves she focuses on people’s social and psychological development through examining the different cultural aspects of raising a child. During this process she compares the American perspective of treating babies, to those of the Gusii and the Dutch. Throughout her examination many points are made that I believe can give the reader’s a valuable understanding of the impact of different means of parenthood on a child’s future development.

You bring light to some very important meanings of “mitzvah”. Being of the Catholic religion, whenever I heard that someone was having a bar/bat mitzvah for their child, I immediately thought the party celebration was the most important aspect of this Jewish milestone. I never had the pleasure of attending anyone’s bar/bat mitzvah, but have seen pictures and heard of the elaborate amount of money spent on the festivities. It is interesting to learn about the definition of the word and how it connotes following the commandments, performing good deeds, and having unity with peers. I think that all the years of schooling to learn the Torah, to speak Hebrew, and then tell those present in the Synagogue what they have learned should be

In various cultures, heavy importance is placed on the transition from child to adult. A young person’s coming of age and the ceremonies which may follow can embody a highly important, enlightening, and maybe even confusing period of time for the person undertaking these rites of passage. This type of coming of age ceremony holds a very high importance to the followers of Judaism as it signifies the transition of a young boy into a young man, or a young girl into a young woman, it is known as a Bar or Bat Mitzvah, which means “son of commandment” or “daughter of commandment”, and thus the person undergoing the ceremony is known as the Bar/Bat Mitzvah. As is hebrew custom, the age of

There are a number of activities that take place during the ceremony and each part has its own purpose and significance. As a whole, the procession takes place over a course of four days and within a decent amount of time of the first menstruation. However, in the event of the child being away at boarding school they will go home immediately or if this is not an option then the ceremony must be postponed. The ordering of events take place over the course of the four days directly relate to the myth of the origins of Kinaalda. For instance, in Marie Shirley’s Kinaalda the order and the events that take place resemble closely the events that took place during the mythical origin story. For Shirley’s own ceremony the events that take

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

Mead tells of how birthdays are not of importance, but the day of birth is, especially with highly ranked babies. On this day there is a great feast and property is given away. The first baby must always be born in the village of the mother. For months before the birth, the family of the father brings food while the family of the mother makes clothes. At the birth, the fathers mother or sister must be present to take care of the newborn. There is no privacy and the woman is not allowed to cry out in pain. It is not uncommon for 20 to 30 people to be present at the birth, and to stay all