Coming of age and initiation

Upanayana, ‘leading near’ to a teacher, is the classical Hindu initiation into Vedic learning. Traditionally performed for boys of the three upper varnas, ideally between about eight and twelve, it is described as a second birth – hence the term dvija, ‘twice-born’. Before a sacred fire, the boy receives the sacred thread (yajnopavita or janeu), worn over the left shoulder, and is taught the Gayatri mantra. Today it is kept mainly by Brahmin families, sometimes shortly before marriage; reform movements such as the Arya Samaj offer it to girls too, and in parts of South India a girl’s coming of age is also celebrated.

In Myanmar, many boys take part in shinbyu, a joyful ceremony re-enacting the Buddha’s renunciation of princely life. Dressed as princes, they are paraded through the town or village; then their heads are shaved and they put on robes to live in the monastery as novices (samanera) for days or weeks, keeping the ten precepts. In Thailand and Laos, young men traditionally spend a period as monks, often during the rainy-season retreat and before marriage, making merit for their parents. Such ordinations need not be permanent but are among the most important steps in a young man’s life; girls in Myanmar have an ear-piercing ceremony at the same celebrations.

Sikh initiation into the Khalsa, Amrit Sanchar, has no fixed age: women and men take it when they feel ready to live by the faith’s discipline, often in their teens or later. Five initiated Sikhs, representing the Panj Piare of 1699, prepare amrit by stirring water and sugar in an iron bowl with a double-edged sword (khanda) while reciting five prayers. Initiates drink the amrit, which is also sprinkled on their eyes and hair, and vow to wear the Five Ks and keep the Sikh code of conduct. Many families also hold a Dastar Bandi, when a boy’s first turban is tied in the gurdwara.

Zoroastrian girls and boys are initiated in the ceremony called Navjote among the Parsis of India, or Sedreh-pushi, ‘putting on the sacred shirt’, in Iran, usually between the ages of seven and fifteen. After a ritual bath, the child sits before a priest and a burning fire and recites the declaration of faith. The priest helps the child put on the sudreh, a white muslin undershirt, and ties the kusti, a cord woven from seventy-two strands of lamb’s wool, three times around the waist, recalling good thoughts, good words and good deeds. From then on, the child unties and reties the kusti with prayers several times a day.

According to Jewish law, a boy becomes bar mitzvah, ‘son of the commandment’, at thirteen, and a girl becomes bat mitzvah at twelve (or thirteen in many non-Orthodox communities), taking on responsibility for keeping the commandments. The status comes automatically with age, but it is usually celebrated in the synagogue, where the young person is called up to read from the Torah scroll for the first time and often gives a short talk on the passage. In Orthodox communities, girls’ celebrations take varied forms; in Reform, Conservative and other movements, girls read from the Torah just as boys do, a practice that began in the United States in 1922.

In the Catholic, Anglican and Lutheran churches, confirmation completes the promises made at infant baptism. Usually received between childhood and the late teens, after a course of instruction, it involves the laying on of hands by a bishop and, in Catholic practice, anointing with holy oil (chrism), invoking the gifts of the Holy Spirit. Catholic children typically make their First Holy Communion at around seven or eight. Orthodox Christians receive the equivalent chrismation, and communion, as infants at baptism. In Baptist and many evangelical churches, the decisive step is believer’s baptism, chosen by a young person or adult as a public profession of faith.

Islam has no single coming-of-age ceremony. A child becomes religiously accountable on reaching bulugh, physical maturity, and from then on is expected to pray five times daily and fast in Ramadan. Families mark the path to that point in many ways. Completing a first full reading of the Qur’an in Arabic is widely celebrated, as in the Ameen or khatm gatherings of South Asia and the khataman of Indonesia. A child’s first Ramadan fast may be honoured with a party, and in Turkey and the Balkans a boy’s circumcision (sünnet) is a festive occasion, with the boy dressed in a special costume.

In the Bahá’í Faith, fifteen is the age of spiritual maturity for girls and boys alike. From this age, young people become responsible for the laws of the faith, including daily obligatory prayer and the annual Nineteen-Day Fast. There is no ceremony: a young person simply affirms that they wish to be a Bahá’í, in keeping with the principle that faith should rest on independent investigation of truth rather than inheritance. Local communities often welcome youth of this age into fuller participation, and many become active in study circles, service projects and the moral education of younger children.

Japanese families mark childhood milestones at Shinto shrines. At Shichi-Go-San, ‘seven-five-three’, around 15 November, girls aged three and seven and boys aged five (and sometimes three) are dressed in kimono and taken to a shrine for purification and prayers for healthy growth, receiving long red-and-white ‘thousand-year sweets’ (chitose-ame). Adulthood itself is celebrated on Coming of Age Day (Seijin no Hi), the second Monday of January, mostly for those turning twenty. The ceremonies are civic, organised by local councils, but many young people – women often in long-sleeved furisode kimono – also visit a shrine to give thanks and pray for the future.

Classical Confucian texts such as the Book of Rites (Liji) describe the capping ceremony (guanli) for young men, held at about twenty, and the hairpin ceremony (jili) for young women, at about fifteen. Performed before the family’s ancestral shrine, the capping involved three successive caps of increasing dignity, each with words of exhortation, and the young man received a ‘courtesy name’ (zi) for use by his peers. The rite marked readiness for adult duties, above all to family and ancestors. The Song-dynasty scholar Zhu Xi simplified it in his Family Rituals, it was long kept in Korea, and it has seen revivals in recent decades.

A Roman boy came of age, usually between fourteen and sixteen, by putting on the plain white toga virilis, ‘toga of manhood’, often at the festival of the Liberalia on 17 March. At home he dedicated his childhood bulla amulet to the household gods (Lares); then family and friends escorted him to the Forum to be enrolled as a citizen, and sacrifice was offered on the Capitol. In Athens, young men of eighteen became ephebes, swearing an oath in a sanctuary and undertaking military training. For girls in both societies, the great transition was marriage, before which they dedicated their toys to the gods.