Confirmation Ceremony Reflections
Confirmation Ceremony Reflections
Discussions
Confirmation Ceremony Reflections
I AM Eden International
I AM EDEN INTERNATIONAL
DavidCampus, Nova Scotia, Canada
Discussions on Teaching Frameworks | Subject: Confirmation Ceremony Reflections
Confirmation Ceremonies marked a very significant change in the lives of our young people. These Rites of Passage spelled their transition from liberties and latitudes of childhood to the duties and responsibilities of adulthood. The keynote that our ancestors sought to impress upon our young men was Responsibility and Duty. They did not want to sugar coat the child’s expectations of life. Growing up and growing old is hard, difficult, and often painful. Often it can feel like you are being torn apart. That’s life. There is hurt and there is healing but, no matter what, there is always duty.
Rites of Passage for young men could often be cruel and painful. Curiously, females were often spared these gruesome trials as they were sometimes believed to be subject to the “three humiliations of the blood”: the first period, the first child, and menopause. For some of the ancients, Mother Nature herself initiated her daughters but the men of the tribe had to initiate the boys. Hence, the fashion of circumcision, scarring/tattooing, fights, challenges of valour, strength, and wit. Males were expected to prove themselves worthy, which carried with it the implication that – as they currently stood – they were not worthy. To be thought of as worthy they needed to successfully complete the trials. Failure to successfully complete these trials very often carried serious social consequences for the males. Such males were treated with suspicion, categorised as female, and were not allowed to have children. This mistrust was evidenced in the saying ‘the uninitiated man would burn the village done just to warm his feet.’ The men of the village believed these failed candidates were morally weak, and their loyalty and courage were inadequate.
These days we can dispense with the cruel elements of such rituals but I doubt it would be wise to dispense with these rituals altogether. However, in what way could we reframe these ancient rites so as to impress upon our youth the nature of the challenges that lie ahead of them and the attitudes that would be most beneficial in life? I think there should be a variety of trials and challenges. One Challenge should be completely personal and individual. One should be a trial involving a mentor. The Final Trial should be a Group Challenge. The Final Trial should be the “Class” organising the Final Day Party. They should be responsible for everything, using a minimum of adult guidance: the sourcing of the food, the prep and cooking, the serving, the music, the clean up, the logistics, the determining of roles – everything.
The individual trial should be something that challenges the kid close to breaking/physical exhaustion, ideally involving the achieving of some new personal best. This victory should be witnessed by the child’s nearest and dearest, and they should be howling in encouragement to help them get over the line. These challenges might not necessarily be physical in nature, it depends on the child’s specific strengths. There are benefits to helping the child choose the goal, lessons to be learned in acquiring the discipline needed to achieve the goal and so on. However, it should be a genuinely difficult challenge or else it’s pointless.
The Mentor Challenge highlights the generations and that we rely on and need one another. As the Older fades the Younger must take up and complete the challenge. Such challenges reveal symbolise that one day the child will grow old and its fading strength will be compensated by the next generation. The inability of the older to finish the challenge also indicates that most things worth doing cannot be achieved in one lifetime. It symbolises that each generation must give its all, teaching us that ambivalence of the older generation to the welfare of future generations, heaps unasked for hardship on the youth – at the same time stressing to youth that debauchery and decadence squanders the work put in by their elders and impoverishes future generations. There are ways to dramatise this such that the adverse impact of selfishness and laziness are highlighted. This could well be a group activity, even teams competing – with similar crowds howling in encouragement. These crowds are emblematic of our ancestors who made this moment possible and are praying for our success, the unseen divine agencies that are likewise tirelessly toiling away for our prosperity, and our very own loved ones that have worked and sacrificed so that these kids could go out into the world take on responsibility and dare to make the world a better place.
The Final Challenge focuses on responsibility and teamwork. It also creates a special and highly memorable day, and a fitting end to the antecedent challenges. It involves a lot of moving parts. Each iteration will undoubtedly give rise to their own stories and legends. Over time these could get quite involved but that’d be OK.
I feel that this version of the Initiation Rites/Rites of Passage for Adolescents would offer great social and spiritual value.
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