Rites of Passage are ceremonial events that mark the transition from one social or religious status to another. They are most commonly performed in a religious context, such as Christian baptisms or land diving rituals in Vanuatu. There are also secular rites of passage, such as graduation or quinceañera, celebrated by 15-year-old girls in Latin American communities. In a ceremonial rite of passage, a person is removed from their normal place in the community (separation), goes through a change or trial (transformation), and then re-enters the community.
The 150-year-old ritual in eastern Germany, which was mainly celebrated in the past 50 years, is not without controversy. Supporters see it as a non-religious way to give teenagers a forum, while opponents argue it is a non-religious way to give teenagers a forum. The most common rites of initiation are predominantly or wholly secular ceremonies conducted to celebrate events like entry into a common-interest association or graduation from school.
Rites of passage dramatize a society’s worldview in ways that evoke certain emotions, providing experiential evidence for claims about the composition of society. The German Humanist Association advertises for young Jugendweihe, or “youth consecration”. Secular coming of age ceremonies for non-religious youngsters who want a rite of passage comparable to religious rituals like confirmation or Shinbyu are also available.
In summary, rites of passage are ceremonial events that mark the transition from one social or religious status to another. They can be religious or secular, and they can be performed on special occasions to mark the transition from childhood to adulthood.
📹 A rite of passage for late life | Bob Stein
We use rituals to mark the early stages of our lives, like birthdays and graduations — but what about our later years? In this …
What is an example of a secular ritual?
Religious and secular rituals play a significant role in signaling transitions in life, such as marriage, death, or leaving home. These unique and extraordinary events help signal a shift in our lives and provide healthy outlets for our emotions. The power of ritual is one reason why cohabitation outside of a proper marriage union can be damaging to couples and society. A wedding signals a shift in responsibilities and commitments, creating a new social unit.
The process of transitioning from a traditional marriage to cohabitation is essential for a couple’s mental, social, and emotional well-being. The uniqueness and uniqueness of these rituals help to distinguish between the sacred and the mundane, making them a crucial part of life’s transitions. In contrast, cohabitation outside of a proper marriage union can be detrimental to couples and society.
What are 3 examples of secular?
Non-religious individuals can be referred to as atheists or agnostics, but they are not considered secular. Examples include public schools, grocery stores, and synagogues. The term “secular world” refers to everything that exists outside of religion, such as laypeople authorized by the bishop to read parts of services in Anglican or Episcopal churches. This term is used to describe activities and attitudes that are not tied to religion.
What is a liminal rite of passage?
Liminality is a concept in anthropology that refers to the ambiguity or disorientation experienced during the middle stage of a rite of passage. It occurs when participants no longer hold their pre-ritual status but have not yet begun the transition to the status they will hold when the rite is complete. This stage is where participants stand at the threshold between their previous way of structuring their identity, time, or community and a new way established by the rite.
The concept was first developed by folklorist Arnold van Gennep in the early twentieth century and later adopted by Victor Turner. It has since been used to describe political and cultural change, rites, and social hierarchies. During liminality periods, social hierarchies may be reversed or temporarily dissolved, and continuity of tradition may become uncertain. This dissolution creates a fluid, malleable situation that enables new institutions and customs to become established.
The term has also been expanded to include liminoid experiences more relevant to post-industrial society. Van Gennep, who coined the term liminality, published his work in 1909, Rites de Passage, which explored and developed the concept of liminality in the context of rites in small-scale societies.
What are the 5 categories of rites of passage?
Initiation rites are crucial for human growth, development, and socialization in many African communities. These rites mark the transition to full group membership and connect individuals to the community and spiritual world. Dr. Manu Ampim identifies five stages of initiation rites: rite to birth, rite to adulthood, rite to marriage, rite to eldership, and rite to ancestorship. In Zulu culture, entering womanhood is celebrated by the Umhlanga.
Rites of passage are diverse and found in many cultures worldwide. Many western societal rituals may appear like rites of passage but miss important structural and functional components. In Native and African-American communities, traditional rites of passage programs are conducted by community-based organizations like Man Up Global. The missing piece is the societal recognition and reincorporation phase. Adventure education programs like Outward Bound have been described as potential rites of passage.
In tribal and developed societies, entry into an age grade, generally gender-separated, is marked by an initiation rite, which may be the crowning of a long and complex preparation, sometimes in retreat.
What is an example of a religious rite of passage?
The rites of passage observed in different cultures vary considerably. In the Jewish religion, for instance, the bar mitzvah is a celebration and religious ceremony that marks the confirmation of an individual’s adulthood and indicates their commitment to the faith. Similarly, in Christianity, confirmation is a ceremony that confirms an individual’s status as an adult and indicates their observance of the faith.
What would be considered a rite of passage?
This article discusses rites of passage, ceremonial events that mark the transition from one social or religious status to another in various societies worldwide. These rites are often connected to biological crises, such as birth, maturity, reproduction, and death, which bring changes in social status and social relations. Other rites celebrate cultural changes, such as initiation into societies with special interests, such as fraternities.
Rites of passage are universal and have been present in pre-existing societies since very early times. They have also been used as a means of providing entertainment, with religion being a primary vehicle for art, music, song, dance, and other forms of aesthetic experience. French anthropologist and folklorist Arnold van Gennep coined the term “rites of passage” in 1909, viewing them as means to ease individuals through the difficulties of transitioning from one social role to another without social disruption.
Van Gennep’s analysis of preliterate and literate societies revealed that rites of passage consist of three distinct elements: separation, transition, and reincorporation. The person symbolically severed from their old status, undergoes adjustment during the transition period, and is finally reincorporated into society in their new social status. Although the most commonly observed rites relate to crises in the life cycle, van Gennep saw the significance of these ceremonies as social or cultural, celebrating important events that are primarily sociocultural or human-made rather than biological.
What are examples of traditional rite of passage?
Rites of passage are significant life events that occur during different stages of life, such as reproduction, manhood, marriage, death, and birth. In African societies, these rites are viewed as an important stage in life, involving the healthy transition of individuals through life stages such as birth, adulthood, marriage, eldership, and death.
In African rites of passage, parents and community members play a crucial role in facilitating the transition, which is considered transformative as the individual’s status changes. The three characteristics of rites of passage are separation, transition, and incorporation. The separation process involves being away from home and changing routines, leading to physical changes and a shift from childish behavior to adulthood. Puberty is characterized by uncertainty and mystery, causing anxiety and extreme stress.
Ethics and values training guide the conduct of the initiate, while as children grow and mature, they move to the incorporation phase, where they internalize values, norms, and ethics. This chapter aims to discuss the impact of rites of passage on the health care of African societies practicing them.
What is a secular rite of passage?
Secular coming-of-age ceremonies, also known as civil confirmations, are non-religious ceremonies arranged by non-religious organizations to prepare adolescents for adulthood. Originating in the 19th century, these ceremonies aim to provide a similar rite of passage to Christian confirmation. They are now organized in several European countries, often connected with humanist organizations. During the communist era, young people were given identity cards at 15 and required to perform military service at 19.
Modern non-religious ceremonies, such as the Jugendweihe in Germany, originated in the 19th century and were arranged by independent Freethinker organizations until 1954 when the Communist party banned it and changed it to promote Communist ideology. In the GDR, the Jugendweihe became the most popular form of coming-of-age ceremony, replacing Christian confirmation. After Germany’s reunification, the non-religious rite of passage has become a tradition, with approximately 60-70 of eastern states still participating.
Are there any universal rites of passage?
Graduation from school, divorce, and retirement are major transitions in modern large-scale societies. Rites of passage in North America include baptisms, bar mitzvahs, confirmations, school graduation ceremonies, weddings, retirement parties, and funerals. These emotional-charged transitions are considered life crises and are often connected to personal transitions between important stages. In the early 20th century, Belgian anthropologist Arnold Van Gennep observed that all cultures have prescribed ways for individuals and societies to deal with these emotionally charged situations.
Rites of passage are religious ceremonies that help individuals, relatives, and friends pass through an emotionally charged, tense time. Most rites of passage are religious ceremonies, reinforcing the dominant religious views and values of a culture.
In North America, rites of passage include baptisms, bar mitzvahs, confirmations, school graduation ceremonies, weddings, retirement parties, and funerals. These intentionally ritualized ceremonies help individuals, relatives, and friends pass through an emotionally charged, tense time. The military symbolism and ritual acts of a formal religious wedding in Canada are an example of how these ceremonies can reinforce the world-view.
Is prom a rite of passage?
Prom, a rite of passage for teenagers, has been celebrated since the late 19th century. Proms, modeled after high society debutante balls, have evolved from semi-formal end-of-the-year dances in school gyms to a billion-dollar industry involving limousines, flowers, photography, special attire, and over-the-top invitations. The concept of prom dates back to ancient Greece, where formal banquets were held for elite men to honor their transition into adult society. In 18th and 19th-century Europe, women participated in aristocratic formal dances and balls, with debutante balls becoming common as coming-out ceremonies for the elite.
Do Christians have a rite of passage?
Christian families often baptize their babies upon birth, with the parents and godparents making promises to raise the baby in a Christian family. The baby is sprinkled with water and a cross sign on its forehead, symbolizing its belonging to the world-wide Christian family. Some families do not baptise their babies but hold a dedication service, expressing gratitude and a desire for the child to follow God’s rules.
Believer’s baptism is a more recent option, where the person is “dunked” under water, symbolizing God’s forgiveness and a new life as a Christian. This ceremony is a way for the child to grow up following God’s teachings and to grow in their faith.
📹 Ranking Coming of Age Ceremonies From Around The World
Pretty much every culture in the world has a coming-of-age ceremony to mark a child’s passage into adulthood. For some, it’s just …
I have come to learn that it is extremely important to give ourselves credit for how far we have come. As humans we are all ti hard on ourselves most of the time. Never encouraging ourselves to keep going and giving ourselves a little reward for all the hard work we have done( if you genuinely have put in some hardwork). So I think we should start embracing and celebrating our accomplishments, both old and new !
I am a Xhosa man from South Africa. I had to undergo unanaesthetised circumcision to become a man. During this time, we had men from our community speak to us about what it means to be a man, the idea being that you would gain wisdom through your pain/trials. I was told it would be the most extreme pain I had ever felt and while that was true, 4 weeks later when I was home, I stubbed my toe in the dark and had a new most extreme pain I had ever felt. Pain is relative. The pain was rather similar to getting your foreskin pinched in a zipper…for 2 weeks. The whole healing process was about 3 weeks. In the past, you would also be living off the land for 3 – 6 months. Interestingly, our brother tribe, the Zulu people had this manhood initiation ritual abolished because Shaka Zulu hated that he would lose fighting age warriors for so long, so he changed their ritual to walking over hot coals and thorns. I think they’ve since dropped the thorns, but they continue the hot coals. But I’m not Zulu, so I don’t know everything about it
I will say Rumspringa is hardly a “choice”. They go out and come back only to be guilted into staying and threatened with full shunning if they decide to leave. Being shunned means never seeing your family, not being allowed back even for funerals and so on. Of course it varies by community but really, its not a real “gift of choice”. Its a “go see what the sinners do and come back to us where its safe and you wont go to hell” situation. Also a lot of communities don’t even practice Rumspringa anymore.
I participated in the debutante ball in highschool when I was 16 years old. I’m from Melbourne, Australia and this happened in 2013. It was a really fun event, we got dance lessons for a couple of months beforehand and I chose one of my best friends to be my partner! Got to pick out a beautiful white dress to wear for the night and rode in a stretch hummer to the building it took place in and had a tonne of fun. Some of the teachers at school did not agree with the concept of debutante balls as they consider it to be degrading to women to be presented to society for the male gaze etc. However the way I saw it was that I wanted to dress up like a princess and learn to waltz and dance the night away with my best friend and that is exactly what I did.
For those reading from the Torah for the Bar/Bat mitzvah, it can be pretty tough (clearly not as hard as some later categories), both because you may need to memorize the tune (and how to pronounce the words) to a quite long passage, and also because you are performing in front of lots of people. Many Jews also have a haircutting ceremony for boys at 3 years.
With reference to the Dipo ceremony of Ghana, the young girls are made to swallow a hard boiled egg whole without biting or breaking the egg. It is believed that if a girl is not able to swallow the egg and bites or breaks it she is biting “literally” into her own eggs and that will affect her giving birth💀
@joescott – The original version of that “diving off a 10 story building” wasn’t the shoulder. I remember perusal the original discovery in the 80’s on a documentary on it. Back then, the villagers would dig up the dirt so it’s soft and the goal was to be the one that hits the soft dirt with their head not shoulder. It probably got changed by outsiders.
I didn’t have any of these, but I grew up in an air force family, so I went skydiving at 1,300 feet on my 18th birthday. Was fun! My own daughter is considering doing the same, but I’m encouraging her to get her driver’s license now, so she also has the option of flying a plane on her 18th. Jumping is worth doing at least once, but flying feels way more powerful! I think the added “taking control” element of flying the plane is more appropriate for an 18th, than just jumping out of one. Ask any bird which one is better!
GREAT episode, Joe! This is the type of anthropological shit I am down to learn. Well, to be 100% honest, I’m down to learn about almost anything, but I am especially interested in anything and everything that has to do with our fellow humans and their customs and general way of life. The jokes were fantastic, I especially loved Rachel’s “Painting the town red” – that made me ugly-laugh. I’ve been following your website since I was a very immature and VERY broken 23 year old, back in 2013, with a baaad addiction to heroin, amphetamine, Xanax, and anything else I could take, which I had been fighting with since I was 14. Now I’m 34 and has been clean since the beginning of 2021, so I feel like I have grown up and become a “real” adult with your website and you – so you have been a big part of my “Coming of age ritual”. Thank you for keeping me curious! You’re the best! PEACE!
My buddy and I have a podcast and we talked in an episode months ago about the rites of passage in different cultures and the vine bungie jumping as well as the wasp stinging was some of the things we spoke of. Fascinating how certain practices in what we think of a modern world are still used in so many places around the world. Well done on this vid Joe! Much more in-depth detail than we did…hehe. Love the website you were and are an inspiration to so many people, keep the knowledge flowing.
In Norway we have something called Russ or Russetid which we do in the last year of high school. It lasts from 1st may to our constitution day 17th may. We usually put on red overalls that we decorate and party and drink all throughout may. We also usually do challenges like sleeping a night in a roundabout, drinking 4 beers in a minute or running around a lake naked, stuff like that (we have a long list of challenges you can choose from). Some friend groups also spend months and tens of thousands of $ on an old bus they decorate and turn into a party bus they can drive around partying in.
Hi, Joe! I love your website. However, I need to make a slight correction in the bar/bat mitzvah category. Girls do EXACTLY what the boys do, minus the tefillin. I know because I had a bat mitzvah when I was 13 (back in the Stone Age). Otherwise, it’s another great article. Keep it up! My kids and I are big fans!
The thing I love the most about these rituals, is not the different things that exist around the world. Is that when you really look at them, they are just the same thing. Culture is very diverse, sometimes even in the same place, different comunities have different rituals. But underneath the culture, we are all humans, and we are just the same. The rituals have all the same basis. And I love that. It’s just something more deep than culture
21:25 – I remember seeing that depicted in the film A Man Called Horse when I was a kid. I don’t remember the movie as a whole, but that scene is hard to forget. I get sympathy pains just thinking about it. 22:30 – That one is depicted in the film _Roots_, when Kunta Kinte is still with his people, before being abducted by slavers.
It’s extremely important to note that not all “Amish” communities practice Rumspringa. I’ve recently learned that a lot of what we Americans refer to as Amish communities can be terrifyingly controlling. Not everyone is bad, but when you restrict information to the outside world and force community members to conform, the people who ARE bad can get away with horrific things. (Think North Korea)
I was in Akureyri, Iceland, where i saw a group of teens jumping from the pier into the ice cold water. One of them told me this was a tradition to mark the end of the school year. I didn’t ask if this was tradition throughout Iceland, or if it was tied to a tradition dating back to a time before schools.
Honestly, doing circumcision on willing adults is not all that bad. Consent is key. Forcibly circumcising a baby is somehow legal in most countries, yet if you tie down an adult man and circumcise them, you’ll be sent to prison. Normally people claim kids deserve more protection than adults. People can learn to accept some pretty crazy things if they’re told it’s normal for a young age. When looking at the more “barbaric” rituals in other cultures… look at your own first. Every culture has traditions that are strange or barbaric to everyone else. It is mainly when force or coercion is used to make someone participate I really get worried.
Roman Catholic here! To expand upon the sacrament of Confirmation, the youngest age you can receive the sacrament differs from parish to parish and is determined by the bishop. I’ve had friends from other parishes who got confirmed at 11, and friends confirmed as old as 17. Plus, not all Catholics are confirmed as kids/teens. Some are adult converts or had gotten to that sacrament in adulthood. It’s not necessarily a “rite of passage” but a promise to the Church to uphold and continue the Church’s values and the Lord’s teachings.
That thing with hanging from skewers? Apparently it’s a lot easier is you’re ‘in the zone’, hence the days of ritual beforehand. Around these parts, people stick things through themselves and parade around on an annual basis and by these parts I mean Phuket and Malaysia. Google Phuket Vegetarian Festival if you have a strong stomach.
I went to a quinceanera for a classmate one time in Florida where I’m from and it was crazy. They stayed up till like four in the morning. There was even a L A R G E white guy, just eating all the food. Didn’t interact with or interrupt anyone at all. Just minding his business, eating the absolute banger food. I was getting tipsy, I was 17, I never saw her again.
My first ever birthday party was at 31. My birthday falls in the school holiday, so I never got to have the happy birthday song and friends over as a kid. So my best friend dressed me in a tutu and a crown,got me a jumping castle and I had an absolute ball. Imagine a bunch of dunk 30-somethings on a jumping castle with sparklers and goodie bags with candy. Made missing the big hoo-ha of coming of age parties worth it
I came of age two months after I graduated high school. I was lounging on the living-room sofa. Dad came in, dropped the classified ads on my lap, and simply said, “Son, you have three options: Get a job, get a degree, or get out.” Let’s just say that by Wednesday the following week I had a full-time job that kept me employed for the next 30 years.
As an introvert with severe anxiety about talking in public, or really just attention on me, the first half of my Bat-Mizvah was a literal nightmare. I also DO NOT SING IN PUBLIC and while it’s not technically singing, you have to read the Torah in a very specific way. Awful. Full congregation plus friends. Nightmare. The party was fun though. Mine was medieval fantasy themed.
Where I’m from, we had confirmation as protestants, prepared by a year of confirmation “school”, basically like ethics/religion class in school. When that was done, on the day of confirmation at the age of 14/15, each kid had their own party where all the relatives and friends of the family would show up and gift you money, which also was sent from total strangers, a lot of strangers in my case cause a lot of people in my lil town knew that most of my relatives were dead. I got really rich that day and a couple months after, I had a PlayStation 2 a week after it came out. In the evening, however, following the protestant tradition in our parts, we all met and toured through the town, to each kid’s house (again, we were all 14 or 15), where the parents would serve us whatever alcohol they had enough of to give to 14 kids (my year was super low in births in the town). So at my house we all got a small cup of Bailey’s,little more than a shot, at the other kids house we all got shots of cherry liquor, another place we each got a small beer, and so on. The last kid’s place was right next to the local restaurant/hotel. Where the owner, of course, was informed. So there we got fries as much as we could eat, and more beer. The whole thing was carefully composed among the parents (and our town’s clergywoman) as to get us really drunk, but juuust to a point that we could still remember most of it the next day. So yeah, drunken stupor (under constant, but covert parental supervision, as I later learned) basically was the rite of passage where I lived, to great amusement of all the adults we met.
For weird «good times» coming of age traditions check out the Russ celebration in Norway. For a few weeks in May, teenagers in their final year of high school (18/19 year olds) dress in blue or red pants, drive around in cars painted in the same color and party hard. They have a list of silly and stupid things to do that they try to complete before the end of the celebrations. These things range from drinking a bottle of coke with tampons in their mouth, driving naked through McDonalds drive through and spending the night in a roundabout. Some tasks are more extreme and sexual and there’s a lot of controversy about the whole tradition.
When I did my confirmation, I was 15 or so. It was a different age for many churches, not all even catholic. They said that it was to ‘confirm’ my faith. When you are baptized, you don’t have a choice. It is done so if you die before you have enough time to choose, at least you are safe by their logic. For many of my peers, it was also when we got to decide what role we wanted faith to have in our life. If you thought some other religion or whatever was better, now you ‘get’ to choose. Kinda like a graduation? I am not a fan of most religious ceremonies, but it seemed like one of the most reasonable ones Catholicism had.
That “O-kee-pa ceremony” where people suspend themselves from bamboo sticks in their front and back is still done. I was performing at an event in Arizona in 2008 and there was a wild suspension act. A guy had hooks put into his upper back, calves, and a couple of other places, then these hooks (which went through his skin, not muscle) were attached to wires and he was lifted off the ground, parallel to the ground (like he was laying face down but flying in the air). THEN they put hooks on his front side and connected those to the hooks on ANOTHER person (a woman smaller than him, but not super tiny). They both were raised off the ground and sent spinning about the stage. They had a large tarp to catch dropping blood, but it was maybe the craziest thing I’ve seen.
Fun and interesting fact: the thumbnail for this article is different depending on where I see it. On my side bar recommendations it is the bullet ants thumbnail. On my main browser page it’s the no bungee jump. Everyday we as mere mortals grow closer and closer to understanding the grace and glory that is the YouTube algorithm.
I think for me and my brother it was when our grandparents and the first time they left us alone in their house. They had a loft 25ft up above the living room. We decided to jump off and land on their family heirloom couch for two hours. That “Devann” made it thru the depression from Kansas to Texas to Arizona. We destroyed in a couple hours. I feel bad about it.
To be fair, one day of agony actually seems preferable to years of struggle to be perceived as an adult without any set goal to get there. I mean, you can be 30 in the US but if you don’t have a “real” job by whatever standard the pop culture has dictated of the era you’re not a “real” adult. “I’m a professional YouTuber.” “Get a job!!” “I’m a professional woodworker.” “That’s not a job, that’s hobby.”
The O-Kee-Pa ceremony is also known as the Sun dance. I forgot what tribe in specific. (Midwest tribe) The ritual was pretty much the same except a tribe leader would get skewered in the back muscles with a rope attached, but instead of fully suspending the person, the rope would just pull the back up. This could go on for days. It was used before war. The person was said to hallucinate and have visions of either victory or defeat, often with a stipulation for victory.
Where I’m from, Finland, I suppose the Evangelic-Lutheran (the majority religion, currently 60+ percent of the population) Confirmation is a relatively common rite of adulthood. 15-16 year-olds would go to camp or get lessons about the protestant religion and eventually, usually during summer, there’s a ceremory for the First Mass/Communion for the kids. After that, you’d be seen as a full member of the congregation. Back in the day, I went to a camp for a week, learned some prayers and then had the ceremony and a party afterwards (flowers, gifts, cake etc.). I was not and am not religious (though I served as a reader in the Confirmation), but that was just something you “have to do” when I was growing up. I think nowadays it’s seen as less important and things like the Matriculation Exam or other Secondary Education Graduation is a more common form of passage.
My dad was circumcised when he was in the army during WWII. Fortunately they used anesthesia, but the healing was still quite painful, so he insisted (very much against my mom’s wishes) that I be circumcised as an infant so I wouldn’t remember the pain (I say “remember” because they don’t use anesthesia for infants! I felt the pain, I just don’t remember it) Unfortunately there were complications and I’ve had trouble urinating my whole life since the circumcision.
By the way,,,, The “O-kee-pa” is still practiced to this day by the Lakota Sioux during the Sun Dance ceremony, where some of the dancers are pierced and are attached to the Sun Dance pole and do their dance around the pole while pierced. One more “coming of Age” ritual that we also have here in western culture are the Boy and Girl Scouts.. although drawn out, they are meant to “Build” a better person for society in general. …just a thought.;
Looking for inspiration for such celebrations in fictional nation that are not too bizarre or dangerous. Unique and different are okay. All I can find are Bar Mitzvahs, Bat Mitzvahs, this Japanese ceremony of adulthood, Quinceaneras, and Sweet Sixteens. They’re okay, but I’m looking for other examples to trigger ideas that aren’t dangerous rituals or garentee messy or wet clothing or staying up several nights or getting into fights.
There was a nice talk with a historian about the Spartans in Hit history. He kinda was a bit of a spoiler concerning held beliefs about Spartan martial prowress and education. E.g. agoge is what the Greeks called that… everywhere. It means school. In a similar vein most of the other stories are controversial because it usually told by Non Spartans to propagate an elitist autocratic lifestyle for their soft, hedonistic democracies because in the end the entire Spartan thing was that aristocrats held all power as the primary warrior class.
The fact that you have to explain and almost sound apologetic to be sure you have covered your base by clearly stating you aren’t doing this to hurt anyone in any way, is to me sad. That some people have to be told beforehand that a certain article isn’t made to offend them perusal it, is worse than any of the rituals in the last category 😀 Well, I’m off to Nebula, I am curious as heck after all those beeping sounds.. Another great article Joe. 😀
I will say, when I was bar/bat mitzvah age, I was MISERABLE about the amount of studying I had to do for it on top of school. You have to read hebrew with confidence, memorize two trope alphabets, and write a speech and deliver it. I always assumed the party was secondary and was a congratulations for doing all that and finally pulling off the actual event – although I did have friends who didn’t have as much studying to do since there are different types of judaism.
Here is my theory for the bullet ants. They have to complete a dance whilst being bitten and poisoned, by the most painful insect they could possibly be bitten by. There is a good reason for this. Hunters in those forests have to climb trees to gather honey and other foods, whilst doing this they will be stung and could even disturb a bullet ant nest. If they can’t ignore the pain they will fall and die. So they cannot become and man and start undertaking these tasks until they prove they can tolerate the pain. It seems like a very sensible process.
Fun fact regarding the Spartan sexual relations between the mentors and the apprentices. Apparently, the word Platonic love is derived from the fact that in Ancient Greece it was considered normal that the apprentice would engage in sexual relations with the mentor to foster closeness, and as a show of gratitude from the apprentice to the mentor. Plato on the other didn’t like this practice at all and refused to engage in sexual relations with his apprentices, hence why the term Platonic love refers to that kind of relationship that is devoid of sex.
With the Vanuatu land diving, they rejected the idea of using modern bungee cords and structures for their cultural values. They believe that making it safer, as people do die doing this, would devalue the ceremony/make it redundant. If the tower’s not built properly, or the vine is too long or breaks, then yeah, death or severe injury awaits.
I HATE Confirmation, or other such rituals, being done so young. I feel you should have to be 18 to do it. Because you don’t really get a choice. Your parents freak out, yell, and some become abusive if the child refuses to participate. So the child is swearing an adult commitment… without the ability to decline.
I actually grew up going to the native american o-kee-pa ceremonies although we called the something else. Its really not as intense as he makes it seem. I would honestly just call it a very intense fast for the person hanging on the tree. My uncle did it about 10 years ago and he was a little weak aftewards but recovered after the feast quickly. And he was in his 50s honestly think that tower jumping shit is way way crazier
Sorry, but I need to make a correction. It is not that every animal in Australia “can” kill you, it is that every animal in Australia “wants” to kill you. Some have the teeth, but they’re just too small. I think it’s the Pigmy Possum that I’m thinking of, but I am sure someone can either ratify or correct me on that.
I do understand why some people complain that some stories like this are considered “exploitative”, especially when they’re mocking or just for shock value. Personally I find it expansive and informative when done with respect as you do here (dad jokes aside 😂). If we don’t look and learn about the greater world outside of our own cultural “bubble”, I feel our own lives and understanding are the poorer for it.
A group of 4 Amish young men tried to pick me up at a laundromat in a tiny town called Sherman, NY back in the late 1990s….they had a horse drawn buggy and they did their best to get me to go with them–winking, whistling and smiling at me from ear to ear! Gorgeous corn fed blond haired boys in suspenders but no way, I was sure I’d never be heard of again if I entered the buggy…rumspringers for sure…
In Latvia we have confirmation ceremonies for Lutheran church (it’s universal between most confessions here) too. Preceeded by thorough studies and affirmed by gifting of particular little silver crosses (on chain and pin) is as far as it goes. However me at 15, taking it all too seriously, fasted before the ceremony for 5 days, barely even drinking water or sleeping, which is not required. Unfortunately i lost my cross while boating and most of the zeal of faith trough the years, for the record leaning more towards agnosticism right now (but still respecting traditions of sane churches). As for the secular world, after passing from 9th to 10th grade in schools (equivalent of starting secondary school in UK or college in US) we still have a blessing-in (or acceptance/inscription) rituals. These depend on the school and its senior students (12th grade). In my school during the ’90s they were relatively harsh, we had to surf down the stairs on showels and other items, dress in silly pre-arranged clothes which got ripped in the process, eggs, tomatos, coal, all kinds of gunk thrown at us finished by feathers and flour, forced to drink all kinds of disgusting cocktails or touch likewise things while blindfolded, tied or adhesive-taped up. It got so out of hand (like some brought alcohol behind teacher’s backs, broke furniture etc.) that our school’s board prohibited it for a few years. I think it’s mostly toned down now, but still happening today. We have a long tradition from times of USSR of this “bless-in” in other places too.
Theres one thats reported by radiolab in a certain tribe in Kenya where boys cover themselves in mud until it drys, then that are circumcized of course without pain killers. If the boy flinches which shows due to the dry mud, they are forever shamed and become an outcast and typically wont marry. The pressure is so high, boys will train their pain threshold for years leading up to this. This is one theroy of why people from this kenyan tribe are such good runners. They have essentially selectively bred a higher pain threshold over countless generations.
In my neighborhood we would collectively stack 3-5 twin mattresses under a telephone pole. Put a rope on the pole, climb to the top (or halfway for the youngsters) and jump off😂 It didn’t matter if it was 3 or 5 mattresses or how high you went, it always hurt to land. But we kept doing it, one guy broke an ankle and I landed weird once and got the wind knocked out of me so bad I thought I would surely die before that first tiny breath came in. I still did it the next week. One time we left the mattresses out overnight and they were gone. We never did it again after that😂
My family has a tradition where when the child gets a job, all of the ancestors debt is inherited. Grandparents pass debt onto their children who pass it onto us if they can’t pay it all off. Once you get a job no less than 20% of your income goes to pay off the debt of one of the parents. It is traditional to have at least 2 children. One for each parent’s debt. If you don’t have children then your debt is to be inherited by the next closest people in line. We die free of debt, but we live drowning in it. It was described to me as a way to honor your ancestors and let their souls rest in peace because they have no unfinished business on Earth.
My coming of age was my mother telling me that since I was old enough to get pregnant, I could no longer show off my knees, since a man might rape me for being “promiscuous.” If that happened now that I was fertile, I could get pregnant, and she was firm that I was not allowed to get an abortion because the Bible forbade it. She then taught me some basic self-defense moves, and I was expected to carry a knife, even to school… which was NOT allowed, so my mom made a special pocket to hide it in my purse. (The days before metal detectors at American schools.) Nothing like getting a lifelong fear of men to thrust you out of childhood and into womanhood.
Too bad you didn’t explore the Ruby Ibarra quinceañera party in México in 2016, that got insanely out of hand, when the father went to social media to make the open invitation for his local village, unaware of the reach the platform had, and ended up with thousands of people showing up, from all over Mexico, and even, from around the world.
Japanese people: Seijinshiki Joe: Szydżyński oh, and while in German «(he)rumspringen» indeed means “jump around” afaik as i know the Pennsylvanian Dutch term means more something like “to run/wander around” no mean intent in either of those btw. the Japanese one sounding Polish just made me chuckle
You forgot about the sprint in the Apache ceremony. She dances nonstop for four days, dawn of fourth day, she must sprint for a certain distance without stumbling with everyone cheering her on, at least that’s what I witnessed, I don’t think it used to be that way. Anyway if she doesn’t stumble she’s a woman!
I went to a Presbyterian church but was kinda non-denominational (I wasn’t catholic at all and we didn’t discuss saints). We had confirmation where we recited the apostles creed. I was never baptized but I was christened in a Lutheran brethren church as a baby. (I’m Norwegian by heritage since my grandparents immigrated here). So saints and being anointed with oil isn’t always a thing.