Quinceañeras

Celebrations to honor or commemorate a child’s passage into adulthood have been around since ancient societies. They are used to show the importance of social responsibilities and the new journey in life that the child is about to embark on. A quinceañera is a rite of passage celebration of a young girl’s life into adulthood on her 15th birthday, it is a special occasion that is heavily influenced by a family’s culture, ethnic origins, and religious belief and widely practiced throughout the Hispanic subcultures. Quinceañeras can be traced back to ancient Native American tribes such as the Inca, Maya, Toltec and Aztec; where an initiation ceremony was done to mark the beginning of a young girl’s journey into her adult life. Once the females

It states that ceremonies relating to life cycle rituals are still a fundamental part of the Mexican American culture. It also explains that these traditional rituals highlight the extended family and link important values of the Mexican American culture, like religion (Wright et al.2012), . The components of a traditional quinceañera demonstrate both of these family values as well as social responsibility. The major religion of the Hispanic-American family group is Catholicism; this is manifested in the quinceañera celebration by the misa de acción de gracias where a priest gives thanks to God for the honoree’s completed childhood and in the bible and rosary that she is presented with. The Hispanic-American family group also places a lot of value on the family institution; the quince celebration involves a lot of family participation. Family members help plan the celebration and in traditional times if a particular family member was wealthy they would graciously pay the way for the festejada to travel to Europe and experience the Spanish culture. As stated before the rite of passage of a young female into a young adult began in Indigenous tribes where a female entering into adulthood meant her entering into new societal roles. The quince celebration emphasizes the new social responsibility that the young adult will now be expected to

It shows how important religion, family and social responsibilities are to the Latin-American family. This celebration also demonstrates how respect is dealt within a family, once the young girl becomes of age she is given more respect and authority by the elder members of her family. This ritual tells how involved the Hispanic family is with their religion and immediate and extended family members. There are many other family groups who value religion and family in their culture as well, they also have celebrations that are similar to the quinceañera. One example of these celebrations can be found in the Jewish-American families, on the thirteenth birthday of a Jewish male or female they celebrate a Bar or Bat Mitzvah. Like the quince this celebration serves as a rite of passage into adulthood for young Jewish boys and girls. Another coming of age celebration, though not religious based, can be found in the North American culture. This is the sweet-sixteen, it is a celebration or a coming of age party usually for an American teenage girl on her 16th birthday, this celebration does not encompass the religious or cultural aspects of a quinceañera but does however, symbolize the importance of a young female becoming an adult. There are also many coming of age celebrations in Native societies that are centered around the time of a young girl’s menstrual cycle. These