Coming of Age Parties Occur

Coming of age parties occur around the world and depending on the culture they are present in the individuals celebrate their birthdays at a particular moment in their lives. The sweet sixteen coming of age party is common across the U.S. And is considered by some to be an essential moment in people's lives. Others tend to believe that this party is much too commercial and that it provides adolescents with negative information that makes it difficult for them to find their personal identity. This is worrying especially when considering that adolescence is a period during which individuals are already frustrated with many things happening around them.

Americans are accustomed to believing that sixteen is an age where children develop into adults and that it is important for the social order to provide them with the opportunity to acknowledge the fact that they have really grown into capable individuals who no longer need to think of themselves as children. The sweet sixteen coming of age party was initially meant for girls, but it came to be used by both genders during recent years as individuals felt an increasing need to differentiate between two distinct chapters in their lives.

There are several cultures around the world that think that coming of age parties are essential. "Some birthdays are more significant than others and are recognized as important rites of passage" (Weiss Adamson & Segan 65). In Jewish tradition the equivalent of sweet sixteen would be the concept of bat mitzvah. This celebration takes place when a girl is twelve or when a boy is thirteen. Jewish individuals consider that this is an important step in people's lives because they experience transcendence from being a child to being an adult. It is actually intriguing to look at how traditions differ in both cultures, as it appears that Jewish people prefer to consider that childhood lasts only until twelve or thirteenth and then consider that it is important for them to provide children with information they need in order to be able to succeed in their lives.

The Quinceanera is a community typically celebrated by individuals in Latin America and is relatively similar to bat mitzvah and to the sweet sixteen party. This celebration is meant solely for girls and it represents the passage a girl experiences as she goes from being a child to being a young woman. "it's usually an elaborate and costly occasion, with many members of the family's community of friends and relatives involved in planning, participating in, and paying for it, and it serves as a signal that the honoree has reached womanhood" (Weiss Adamson & Segan 65).