coming of age
In this series, we've talked about why a formal "coming of age" ceremony can be useful. We discussed ideas about who to invite, who to have as a presenter, and what sort of presentation to have. Last post, we talked about the role of celebration - what sort of entertainment and fellowship you might include.…
At our sons' coming-of-age ceremonies, we aim to gather the wisdom of significant men in the young man's life and offer encouragement, welcome, and exhortation in a public, family-oriented setting. But it's not all teaching and ritual. Another thing we do is invite our guests to rejoice in this time of growth. Our family's birthday celebrations…
In our family, we believe it's helpful to set a particular time in a young man's life to begin transitioning him to adult roles. We talked about our reasons here, and explained who we involve in that formal time of recognition, here. We want to impress on the young man that these new expectations…
We described the idea of a formal coming-of-age ceremony here. We've done this with all six of our sons, and in a few years we'll consider how to celebrate our eldest daughter! One of the earliest questions to answer is the form the ceremony should take ... and therefore, who to invite? Since we're totally at…
People often ask if we'd describe what we do for a coming-of-age ceremony with our boys. Surely with six boys we've done something of the sort … and the answer would be, “Yes, indeed!” You've probably heard of the Jewish “Bar Mitzvah” tradition – where a Jewish boy is officially welcomed to adult status in…