Rites of Passage

Rite of passage is a phrase that combines the words 'rites' and 'passage' together to form a deeper and more complex meaning. Rite can refer to ritual, both formal or informal. A formal ritual would be like an actual event where something happened and an informal ritual means that we interpret the event as a ritual. Passage means something you go through or pass through. People use the word passage for two kinds of meaning, one meaning is an actual road or route for someone to go from one place to another and a metaphorical meaning of passage is a spiritual journey one undergoes to go to another mental state or to achieve enlightenment. When combining the two words, the meaning of both words are mixed and forms the meaning of the newly created phrase, rites of passage. Rites of passage means a ritual, or an event that is thought as a ritual, that let you go to another place, or help you transform your thoughts into a different state of mind. There are many different kind of rites of passages. Some we all share in common is birth and death. When we are born into the world, the action of being born is the metaphorical ritual and the passage can be literal when you enter the world or it can be metaphorical when you mature your mind into an actual functioning brain. When we die, the ritual of dying let us go through a passage of going to the afterlife, reincarnation, or void, depends on different personal preferences. An example of an actual formal ritual is the actual rite that many religion or culture perform for boys to become a man when they are 13, 16, 18 or other ages when it is thought as the age when a kid becomes an adult.