rite of passage

Noun

rite of passage (plural rites of passage)

1. (cultural anthropology) A ceremony or series of ceremonies, often very ritualized, to celebrate a passage or transition from one stage of a person's life to another.
   • The passage through the jambs would thus signify regeneration or new birth, which was to be followed by either sacrifice or by the purifying rite of passage through the fire; for although the passages are so narrow that they could not be used as ordinary gates, they were wide enough for this...1897, H[enry] S[wainson] Cowper, “Section IV. The Senams and Their Story”, in The Hill of the Graces: A Record of Investigation among the Trilithons and Megalithic Sites of Tripoli, London: Methuen &...
   • The so-called rites of passage, which occupy such a prominent place in the life of a primitive society (ceremonials of birth, naming, puberty, marriage, burial, etc.), are distinguished by formal, and usually very severe, exercises of severance, whereby the mind is radically cut away from the...1949, Joseph Campbell, “Prologue: The Monomyth”, in The Hero with a Thousand Faces, Cleveland, Oh.: Meridian Books, World Publishing Company, published April 1969, →OCLC, page 10

   Synonyms:

   rite de passage

2. (broadly) Any significant event or experience that marks a transition from one stage in a person's life to another.
   • After John officially attained his majority, Robert bought him his first beer. This is a common American rite of passage.
   • In the final, affirming piece, "They Tell Me...Now I Know," the girlchild narrator begins menstruation, thus undergoing her rite of passage into womanhood.1989 December 17–23, Terri L. Jewell, “The Power of Black Women Together: Shay Youngblood’s Marvelous Extended Family of Stories [review of The Big Mama Stories (1989) by Shay Youngblood]”, in Gay...