Rites of Passage

A rite of passage is a ritual event that marks a person's progress from one status to another. Rites of passage are often ceremonies surrounding events such as other milestones within puberty, coming of age, marriage and death. Write about any rites of passage that you know about. Have you passed through any your self? What significance do the individual words “rite” and especially “passage” have?


I will bet you anything that this journal is a prompt for the short story we are about to read, "Through the Tunnel," where a young boy tries to swim through an underwater grotto to reach the pool on the other side. This, essentially, is considered a rite of passage (especially when you think about the possible symbols the water represents).


Some rites are very explicit and obvious, while others are more personal and subtle. For example, fraternities and brotherhoods require a certain ceremony for admittance into the group, and significant life events, such as your first time kissing a girl, receiving your driver's license, high school graduation, jumping off a high ledge over a lake, puberty...

More personal rites can include things such as baptism, the acceptance of a religion into one's life, overcoming a seemingly-insignificant obstacle in order to gain approval or self respect (like in the story "Through the Tunnel")...

I guess the major rite of passage I undertook was accepting the words of Jesus as truth, and of course, puberty. That is very important.

A "rite" is, by definition, an established ceremony, and a passage is the act of passing, or going, from one state or place to another. When put together, I guess that a "rite of passage" is a special ceremony, as prescribed by a certain religion or belief, that allows you to move from one state to another.