What are the rites of passage for 14 year olds in various countries

Bar Mitzvahs of all shapes and sizes around the world

The German Bar Mitzvah is a long-standing tradition. In religion and custom, when a person reaches the age of 14, he or she is considered an adult and a bar mitzvah is held. Every year in April and May, boys and girls across the country who have reached the age of 14 dress up and gather at the local House of Culture, accompanied by their parents, relatives and friends. In a festive atmosphere, speeches are made by local government officials or celebrities. They are then congratulated by their teachers, relatives, friends and younger children, and presented with gifts and flowers. The family celebrates with a meal at noon, and in the evening a ball is held, which can be broken until 10 o'clock at night.

Congolese boys have their incisors filed with a file by a matriarch during the coming-of-age ceremony. It is said that this "teeth filing" means that the boy has become a "man" and can fight any beast.

The Japanese government in 1948 established January 15 as Adults' Day, a major holiday for Japanese nationals, when the whole country goes on vacation. On this day, all young men and women who have reached the age of 20 are required to dress up in festive attire and go to places such as guild halls or ward folk halls to participate in coming-of-age ceremonies and celebrations organized for them by all levels of government.

In some Australian Aboriginal coming-of-age ceremonies, people break the incisors of young men and make them fast. Interestingly, there is also an on-the-spot "test": the young man must be calm in front of all the "scary sound" created by adults. If you are lucky enough to pass this level, the second level is to accept the challenge of three adult men, even if wounded and bleeding in the fight to the last moment.

The only "test" Peruvian boys must pass at the coming-of-age ceremony is to jump from a cliff about 8 meters high, and those who chicken out can never become "adults". Although each ceremony there are some young men in the cliff jumping was bruised and swollen, but this ancient "cliff jumping ceremony" is still prevalent in Peru.

One tribe in Mexico's coastal region has an even more bizarre rite of passage: the boys each carry a heavy boulder across a channel!

Canadian Rocky Mountain Indian boys in the rite of passage to swallow a live lizard, the fear of those who are canceled "adult" qualification.

Togo's Bassa people, a woman in the menstrual period after the belly to be in a deep cut, so as to mark her through the life of this pass into adulthood. In Tanzania, as in some African countries, young people enter adulthood with a rite of passage known as circumcision. The so-called circumcision is to the male and female human reproductive organs to perform some kind of surgical operation and to this end the ritual