Rites Of Passage

[Brynhild]

I'm wondering how much emphasis is placed on such significant moments in a person's life these days.

For example, when I crossed the threshold at 13, an aunty of mine gave me a smoke! LOL It would normally have been a big deal when a girl becomes a woman, but in modern day society, there's nothing much about it to celebrate any more - apart from mothers giving birth, and babies being presented - which is a shame really.

Boys had their rites of passage too, and I think it's an important step to honour those children who are about to become adults. My daughter didn't want a fuss made of her, so we went shopping!:thumb001: My oldest son wants a bigger emphasis placed on him when he turns 18, oh boy! :eek:

Have any of you been able to celebrate a particular rite of passage, and if so, how was that done?

[Psychonaut]

It was probably right around the time that I turned 13 or 14 that my grandfather decided I was old enough to go shooting with him. I think firing a Colt .45 is about as good of a rite of manhood as any. :D

[Birka]

At 10 years old I got a Winchester .22 pump action rifle. It doesn't get better than that for a 10 year old boy.

At 12, I got to go out deer hunting with my dad. I will never forget walking through the woods with dad.

[Loddfafner]

I grew up in a milieu where the value of rites of passage was neglected and even forgotten. My dad came to oppose hunting after a bloody accident and did not pass those traditions on to his kids although he came from a full-fledged wild west background himself. I had to make do and set out on my own equivalent of vision quests. When I was 18, I spent a year in Europe on my own, mostly hitchhiking through unfamiliar countries learning to stand on my own two feet. I earned higher degrees. I shot a gun, fought, and went through the rituals of certain notorious subcultures.

[Treffie]

To me, losing both parents made me realise that I had become an adult. Don't want to repeat the experiences again but unfortunately they're an essential part of growing up.

[Lyfing]

I figure there ain't hardly no more rites of passage. In the old primitive cultures of say those who did all those cave paintings. I think they went back in the womb and were born again. Nowadays there ain't no such thing. Maybe if one is a Christian they can be reborn or whatever. Or a jew they can have their foreskin cut off. But, those things don't make no sense. Not in our world anyway. The reason the old stuff don't work no more is because we know better. What is it we know better I reckon would be a good question..?? I ain't got the answer though. Maybe the psychological impact of giving a man a tootie ( and mess with his castration fear ) so he can go on and create is beyond us..??

:wink

Later,
-Lyfing

[Pino]

2 years National Service from the ages of 16-18 should be the crossing from Child to Adult with the ceremony you recieve full citizenship. certificate.

a Rites Of Passage to me is achieving somthing to cross that barrier, your 18th Birthday is not an achievment, there should be more to it than that.

[Beorn]

My rite of passage was realising everyone else was a c**t; the world isn't fair; it gets cold sleeping rough; 21st's can be depressing with no one to love you and share in that moment; not having your parents to fall back upon, etc...

You grow up quick when you have to. Each step is a learning curve.

[Psychonaut]

2 years National Service from the ages of 16-18 should be the crossing from Child to Adult with the ceremony you recieve full citizenship. certificate.

a Rites Of Passage to me is achieving somthing to cross that barrier, your 18th Birthday is not an achievment, there should be more to it than that.

I've been a fan of this type of Heinlein-esque manditory military/government service for some time. :thumbs up

[Brynhild]

To me, losing both parents made me realise that I had become an adult. Don't want to repeat the experiences again but unfortunately they're an essential part of growing up.

I was already an adult with my own family when I lost my dad. Losing someone who's close to you is a rite of passage in itself - life changes considerably and there's no turning back once it's happened. Mortality stares you in the eye and you know then it will happen to yourself one day.

[Skandi]

Nothing special, I suppose, the first time is sunk in that I had grown up was when I bought my own house, I had already been living several hundred miles from home for 5 years but walking into some walls that are yours, mean a lot. Since then I have regressed, and will get to do it all again.

Smaller things also (although not shooting as I had been doing that since I was big enough to hold the rifle!), getting asked to drive your parents ok I was 27!

I don't think that you ever pass a particular point and become an adult, it's all a gradual process.

[Rainraven]

I was never really stressed anything with age.. Though in my family we had a bit of a 'rite' as such with getting your ears pierced when you were 10. Oh I felt so grown up on that day! :p

I'm still not an adult so I can't say I've had any rites of passage into adulthood. But this year is somewhat important in that regard as it feels like my first year properly moving out of home. Last year I still had cleaners empty my rubbish bin for me and cooks make my tea each night, but this year it's all on me. I quite enjoy the feeling :)

As for my 21st? I doubt it'll be anything special, probably just getting really drunk.. Would perhaps be more of a rite of passage if I didn't get drunk for once!! :D

[Solwyn]

When I was 13 my father taught me how to shoot his .357 and that was about the extent of it as far as "events" went. My mother thought it was terrible that I learned to shoot because in her mind it was extremely unladylike and no woman should ever use a weapon. I LOVED it. Some of my favourite memories as a teenager were the times my father and I would go to the range. My favourite bullets were the hollow-point ones and I used to tell my mother this as often as I could, just to listen to her get upset.

"George!!! She'll never have a husband if you keep teaching her these things!!!! No one wants to marry a woman who can kill things!!!" Imagine her reaction when I started going out on hunting trips. My brother was just never interested in these things.

From my mother I got the lecture on why sex was filthy and wrong, and why I should never do it - unless I was married, in which case it was beautiful and glorious. She also made certain to tell me that I was not supposed to look for it, or want it, just that I should provide it intermittently when I was married. :rolleyes:

I am so glad that at some point during the 90s she overcame the social lobotomy of her youth and joined the rest of society-in-progress. :thumb001:

[Barreldriver]

Have any of you been able to celebrate a particular rite of passage, and if so, how was that done?

My first rite of passage is an old Cumberland Gap tradition, since I was the largest male in my generation of kin I was presented with a first blade at the age of 8 to celebrate my eventual future, then in my early teens I was upgraded to smaller daggers and small swords(not all of which were functional), then once I became a legal adult I was given functional weaponry. The tradition evolved from the biggest/largest male in the kin being a "warrior" so to speak.

Another rite of passage was when I was 14 and I was out observing a construction site my family was working at and I was called over and given my first wheelbarrow of concrete to wheel lol. Since then I've been a barreldriver(barrel coming from my inability to pronounce wheelbarrow in my youth, I would always say wheelbarrel lol). :D

[lei.talk]

Would perhaps be more of a rite of passage if I didn't get drunk for once!! :Dthat life-changing decision
would have my full support. :vote_yes:

[Lyfing]

Some society's rites of passage are pretty rough. By going through that ordeal they are fit to be a part of it. Joseph Campbell went on about that a lot. With both his third function of mythology that has to do with the setting in of the local set of sentiments, and also with there being no such thing these days. There being no longer a little closed society but the whole world where we are all could be heroes who kill the dragon "thou shalt" and create poetically within ourselves our own world. We ain't sheep. We ain't going to be no shephard. We are to be "a new beginning, a game, a self-rolling wheel, a first movement, a holy Yea."

As far as my rite of passage is concerned. I was a young punk who didn't have a daddy and who wouldn't listen to his Momma. So, she had me sent off for over a year. I was 13. Those were the most influential days of my life. For the first time I was away from my Momma, my family, my whole world. I have hardly even been back, and I do regret that. ( I did get my Lady Lyfing back though.. ) But, there are times for one to spread their wings and fly..

Anyhow..

Later,
-Lyfing