Coming of age
Coming of age is a young person's transition from being a child to being an adult. The specific age at which this transition takes place varies between societies, as does the nature of the change. It can be a simple legal convention or can be part of a ritual or spiritual event.
In the past, and in some societies today, such a change is often associated with the age of sexual maturity, especially menarche and spermarche. In others, it is associated with an age of religious responsibility.
Particularly in Western societies, modern legal conventions stipulate points around the end of adolescence and the beginning of early adulthood when adolescents are generally no longer considered minors and are granted the full rights and responsibilities of an adult. Some cultures and countries have multiple coming of age ceremonies for multiple ages.
Many cultures retain ceremonies to confirm the coming of age, and coming-of-age stories are a well-established sub-genre in literature, the film industry, and other forms of media.
These ceremonies can represent acceptance into a larger culture, feelings of importance, legal rights and permissions, or entrance into the marriage landscape, depending on the culture.
Cultural
Ancient Egypt
In ancient Egypt, each gender had its own benchmarks of coming of age, but for both genders the cultural custom of marriage was an important indicator of coming of age. Adult maturation was generally considered a social prerequisite for marrying, and this was measured differently by gender. Females were considered of physical maturity and thus marriage-ready once they had their first menses. However, for males marriage-readiness was indicated by them socially establishing themselves and being able to support a family.Generally however, the early childhood stage of life was considered to have ended when puberty began. At this point, young Egyptians begin adapting to their respective societal roles. Hence, for example, 14-year-old ancient Egyptians were considered full adults, involved in the traditional activities of adulthood such as work and having a family. A factor in this is ancient Egyptian average lifespan; estimates are that people lived to be around 30 years old. If a child lived past the age of five, they were considered to have evaded most of the mortality risks associated with infancy.
Transitioning into adulthood also came with different opportunities depending on socioeconomic class. For most, readying for adulthood meant participating in an apprenticeship to learn a trade or skill for support oneself. There was general expectation that children would follow in their parents’ footsteps unless they demonstrated some particular talent, like a natural inclination for priestly studies. The middle and upper socioeconomic classes of ancient Egypt were broadly the scribes and nobility. For these children, formal education was typical. The extent of formal education would also vary by gender.
Education and marriage were cornerstone markers in a child's transitioning to adulthood. Marriage, in particular, and the subsequent household founding, was considered the end of the transitional period. Educationally, literacy was regarded as a characteristic of being and adult, so developing literacy signified that the transitioning into adult was occurring.
For males, formal education was completed by male youth. Royal children and other children of higher social status families would receive education focused on government official and military officer training, the latter consisting of the physical education that royal princes receive. A standard for whether a boy was physically prepared to become a soldier is height. A boy was "taken to be a soldier as a child of pole length." One ancient Egyptian pole converted to modern metrics is about 60 centimeters, suggesting under a literal interpretation, that a boy's role as a soldier was from birth. Another interpretation is that this metric converts to 1 meter, which on average, corresponds to an age of about 7 years old. Sons of soldiers would typically follow their fathers into the profession at a very young age.
Ancient Greece
In certain states in Ancient Greece, such as Sparta and Crete, adolescent boys were expected to enter into a mentoring relationship with an adult man, in which they would be taught skills pertaining to adult life, such as hunting, martial arts and fine arts.Ancient Rome
The puberty ritual for the young Roman male involved shaving his beard and taking off his bulla, an amulet worn to mark and protect underage youth, which he then dedicated to his household gods, the Lares. He assumed the toga virilis, was enrolled as a citizen on the census, and soon began his military service. Traditionally, the ceremony was held on the Liberalia, the festival in honor of the god Liber, who embodied both political and sexual liberty, but other dates could be chosen for individual reasons.Rome lacked the elaborate female puberty rituals of ancient Greece, and for girls, the wedding ceremony was in part a rite of passage for the bride. Girls coming of age dedicated their dolls to Artemis, the goddess most concerned with virginity, or to Aphrodite when they were preparing for marriage. All adolescents in ritual preparation to transition to adult status wore the tunica recta, the "upright tunic", but girls wove their own. The garment was called recta because it was woven by tradition on a type of upright loom that had become archaic in later periods.
Roman girls were expected to remain virgins until marriage, but boys were often introduced to heterosexual behaviors by a prostitute. The higher the social rank of a girl, the sooner she was likely to become betrothed and married. The general age of betrothal for girls of the upper classes was fourteen, but for patricians as early as twelve. Weddings, however, were often postponed until the girl was considered mature enough. Males typically postponed marriage till they had served in the military for some time and were beginning their political careers, around age 25. Patrician males, however, might marry considerably earlier; Julius Caesar was married for the first time by the age of 18.
On the night before the wedding, the bride bound up her hair with a yellow hairnet she had woven. The confining of her hair signifies the harnessing of her sexuality within marriage. Her weaving of the tunica recta and the hairnet demonstrated her skill and her capacity for acting in the traditional matron's role as custos domus, "guardian of the house". On her wedding day, she belted her tunic with the cingulum, made from the wool of an ewe to symbolize fertility, and tied with the "knot of Hercules", which was supposed to be hard to untie. The knot symbolized wifely chastity, in that it was to be untied only by her husband, but the cingulum also symbolized that the bridegroom "was belted and bound" to his wife. The bride's hair was ritually styled in "six tresses", and she was veiled until uncovered by her husband at the end of the ceremony, a ritual of surrendering her virginity to him.
Anglo-Celtic
The legal age of majority is 18 in most Anglo-Celtic cultures. One is legally enabled to vote, purchase tobacco and alcohol, marry without parental consent with consent of family court and sign contracts. But in the early twentieth century, the age of legal majority was 21, although the marriageable age was typically lower. Even though turning 21 now has few, if any, legal effects in most of these countries, its former legal status as the age of majority has caused it to continue to be celebrated.Brazil
In the Sateré-Mawé tribe of the Brazilian Amazon, young boys celebrate their coming of age at 13 where they participate in the Bullet Ant Initiation. During this ceremony, the boys go out and search for bullet ants, and the ants are sedated. Then, the ants are woven into gloves so that their stingers are facing inwards- towards the skin. When the ants wake up, they're furious. The boys then have to wear the gloves for 20 minutes to prove their manhood. They will do this 20 times over the course of many months for the initiation to be finished. Any scream or cry is seen as a sign of weakness.Canada
In Canada, a person aged 16 and over can legally drive a car and work, but are only considered to be an adult at age 18 like in the US. In most provinces, the legal age to purchase alcohol and cigarettes is 19, except in Alberta, Manitoba, and Quebec where it is 18 years old.India
In India, a person aged 18 and over is allowed to own and drive a car, and has attained the right to vote and the age of consent. Inspired by the western cultures however there are usually sweet sixteen birthday parties celebrated across the country but with little cultural significance besides having now become a young adult. The drinking age varies within states from 18 to 21 years old. However, in various cultures across India, menarche is celebrated. There are various rituals depending on the region, celebrating the onsite of a girl transitioning into a woman.Humanist
In some countries, Humanist or freethinker organisations have arranged courses or camps for non-religious adolescents, in which they can study or work on ethical, social, and personal topics important for adult life, followed by a formal rite of passage comparable to the Christian Confirmation. Some of these ceremonies are even called "civil confirmations". The purpose of these ceremonies is to offer a festive ritual for those youngsters, who do not believe in any religion, but nevertheless want to mark their transition from childhood to adulthood.Indonesia
In Bali, the coming of age ceremony is supposed to take place after a girl's first menstrual period or a boy's voice breaks. However, due to expense, it is often delayed until later. The upper canines are filed down slightly to symbolize the effacing of the individual's "wild" nature.While in Nias island, a young man must jump up over a stone as a part of the coming of age ceremony.