Young men and women around the globe mark their passage into adulthood through a plethora of ceremonies or events that salute maturity and responsibility.
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In Japan, young people are considered contributing, mature members of society at the age of 20, at which time they are able to drink alcohol and are eligible to vote.
They mark this coming of age by getting dressed up, attending ceremonies in government offices and celebrating their new-found adulthood with family and friends.
In Vanuatu, it’s a bit more radical.
Young men jump off wooden towers with vines tied around their ankles like non-stretch bungee cords. After their jumps, their mothers throw away items that represent their childhood, symbolising the leap into adulthood.
In Australia our teens finish their secondary schooling and head to the Gold Coast to get drunk.
According to Wikipedia, Schoolies Week is seen as an Australian rite of passage.
It apparently marks a change of state from the imposition of school discipline to the chosen freedom to have a body which is out of control.
It’s the bane of many parents’ existence and has literally claimed the lives of would-be revellers.
Maitland’s Elliette Sutcliffe and her fellow students at Macquarie College have rejected this Aussie tradition and instead will visit an impoverished island nation and spend their post-study period working to help a community.
Ms Sutcliffe expects to paint classrooms and help children learn to read and write.
On the Gold Coast, many of her peers will be painting their faces and struggling to remember their own names after too many alcopops.
Which do you think is more mature?
