Rites of Passage
by Evlampia Tsireli (english translation by Athanasios Koutoupas) Every transition in our life from one state to another is a rite of passage (or separation). From the ancient rituals of initiation, to the most common events of our era, such as military service or marriage, rites of passage characterize every stage in our lives and more often we participate in them unconsciously. Rites of passage (the French ethnographer and folklorist Arnold van Gennep used for the first time this term in his book “ Les Rites de Passage” at 1909) are rituals that help to the transaction of a person from one condition to another. Such rituals mark, for example, the transition from the childhood to the teenage years and then to manhood or femininity, from being alone to marriage and family, and even the transition from life to death. The first rite of passage in which we participate is our birth. The embryo leaves the familiar environment of the ...