Angela White: Required Text Reading 4: Rite of Passage

In Turner and Turner's Image and Pilgrimage in Christian Culture, a rite of passage is defined as a "transitional ritual accompanying changes of pace, state, social position, and age in culture" (249). The subject of rites of passage have always interested me, as I see change as a beautiful and necessary part of life. I feel like in order for a person to learn and grow in a certain community, they need to accept the ways of life and engage themselves into the community, sometimes this involves a rite of passage. For example, when I was in high school, I was on my school's cross country track team. Every year the team would sneak up on the new freshmen and attack them with water guns as they ran through a trail in the woods. We saw this as a type of rite of passage. This happened every year at the end of summer conditioning. The end of the conditioning period was sort of marked by this activity, so as soon as the freshmen were adequately soaked, they were official initiated as a full-fledged member of the cross country team. I find traditions like these to have vast importance in gaining a closeness with a community. After being initiated into a group, you feel more of a connection with them, in knowing that you have been accepted.