Rites of Passage

Rites of passage differ wildly from culture to culture and nation to nation. For example, among the Luiseño Indians, a Native California tribe, prepubescent boys lay on red ant mounds for long periods of time. Not crying out in pain means they have become men.

In the upper elite circles of French aristocracy, young girls who are reaching marrying age are given "coming-out parties" where they are formally introduced to the neighborhood's red-blooded bachelors in elegant debutante balls.
Native Hawaiian tribes have a hut where ladies go when they begin...becoming ladies, to put in delicately. They spend their "time" there getting pampered by other ladies who welcome them into womanhood with great veneration.
In the conservative Mormon culture I grew up in, rites of passage are definably less cruel or ostenstatious. These include 1) getting your first haircut as an infant, and 2)entering baptismal waters at 8 years old. Still later in life, another significant rite of passage in becoming a Mormon woman is learning to embellish scrapbook pages which depict your first haircut and Baptism Day.

But perhaps the most grueling and monumental of all rites of passage in Mormon culture is the day that you host your first extended family reunion.

I am now a woman.