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Coming Of Age Ritual Essay

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Coming of age rituals, assists a person from childhood into adulthood. In Hinduism, the coming of age ritual: The Sacred Thread Ceremony, is celebrated exclusively for boys and is quite a significant ceremony as it transitions the boy into a man. The ritual teaches many important qualities, some aligning with Australian values making it moderately effective in terms of preparing a young person for acceptance into contemporary Australian society. It can only be described as moderately effective since it is exclusively entitled to one gender going against the core Australian value of equality.

The Sacred Thread ceremony, the Hindu coming of age ritual is rather complex as it has many steps leading up to and after the ceremony is performed. The ritual includes 10 different stages; however, this essay will only highlight the preliminal, liminal and post-liminal stages. The preliminal stage involves the boy who must be exclusively part of one of the upper three classes of the caste system (Brahmins, Kshatriyas or Vaishyas) and depending on which of the upper three classes of the caste system the boy belongs to, the age for the ceremony to be held defers. This is because the Brahmin class believe the age of 8, is the ‘proper age’ as the boy is now old enough to learn Sanskrit and can chant the …show more content…

The ceremony itself can either be held at the family’s house, normally a booth is built in front of the house itself and its posts are decorated with trees and flowers or on the other hand can be done in a large wedding hall also decorated with flowers and other things. The religious leader normally a trained priest oversees the ceremony, however, the parents have key roles too, as the mother will spoon-feed the boy for the last time symbolising the child’s care passing from his parents to his guru

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