Rites and rituals play an important role in children's education and in their introduction to the society and the adults' world. These ceremonies vary depending on the places, but they all have something in common: They are learning experiences that help preserving cultural tradition. Some of these rites may take one day; others may take years. People do not have to travel far to be witnesses of a ritual ceremony. Most of the countries have their own way to do rituals. In my birth country, Cuba, most of the girls have a great celebration when they turn fifteen years old. There are some girls who decide to not celebrate this party, and others simply do not have the required money to plan an event like this. Usually, this celebration called The Fifteen takes years of planning by the family of the girl, but it only lasts one night. The day of the celebration is the same as the girl's fifteenth birthday. Usually, the big day, the girl's parents had a stylist to come over and make her beautiful. Then, a photographer takes multiple pictures of the girl dressed with several clothes and posing in several places. She wears big dresses like in colonial times and modern outfit for these pictures which are an important part of the ritual, almost as important as the party because they preserve this moment in the girl's life. Finally, when the big moment is about to come, the girl rides a convertible car around town waving to everybody on the streets. Then, the car drives her to the place destined for the party where her friends and relatives are waiting for the special person of the day. She wears a big long dress at the beginning of the party, but after a while she changes to more comfortable clothes. She dances with her father and her boyfriend if she has one. The way to celebrate The Fifteen is not the same with each girl, but it usually follows the pattern mentioned before. Maybe, this ritual was instated in first place to introduce the girl to society. However, nowadays, The Fifteen's main function is to preserve the tradition. Another function of this ritual is to show the wealth of a family. A better party, more pictures, video taking, and nicer dresses mean that a family is better positioned than others; it is somehow pretentious. This ritual has not a changing effect on the girls' minds and social condition, but it gives the girls the opportunity to participate in a popular tradition and follow costumes of her people that otherwise would be lost. The Fifteen is about the same as the Sweet Sixteen in the United States. I also think that whenever young teenagers reunite in a secret place to smoke or drink trying to imitate adults, they are doing kind of an informal ritual based on what they see and learn to do from adults and based on their wish to grow up. In other places, rituals have a greater importance and impact in young people's lives. In some African tribes there are rituals that mark the turning point for children to be considered adults. These rites may take years, and during this time the children will learn about the costumes of their people. In certain cases they may learn about how to survive in the forest and take advantage of natural resources, or they may learn about sexual behavior, fertility, and reproduction. These rituals are sometimes associated to religious believes in these African tribes, and the natives never take these rites lightly but celebrate them with a big ceremony that includes all the members of the tribe. The way I see it rituals could have a huge magnitude or they could happen at a smaller scale but all of them are educative and carry a lesson of cultural believes and sometimes abilities needed to survive among people and the environment. Rites and rituals mold people and develop customs on them that last during their life time.
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