A rite of passage is a ceremony that marks the move from one phase of life to another. It can be performed by individuals or groups of people.
People in every society and culture experience rites of passage. They happen in different ways and for varying reasons in different cultures.
For example, in Judaism the bar or bat mitzvah can be thought of as a rite of passage. It involves a ceremony that marks an individual’s move from childhood to responsibility for keeping the commandments.
Another example is a wedding ceremony that formally recognises a marriage.
This photograph is of a bat mitzvah ceremony in Israel.
Text adapted from Simple English Wikipedia, Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License 4.0.
Bat Mitzvah in Israel by user Ajnem on Yiddish Wikipedia, CC-BY-SA 3.0
