Lois & Clark Forums Forums General Discussion Off Topic What are your traditions?

A friend of mine became 25 today on 26. october and we made her a crest(I hope this is a suitable translation) of cartons and boxes to put it around her front door(females get boxes and males get socks because of a german saying)

So do you do anything special on certain birthdays.

I don't quite get it. Actually, I don't even know the saying.

Would you consider going out with your friends and getting seriously drunk on your 21st birthday** a tradition? It's not a good one, I grant you. And you certainly pay for it the next morning.

**21 = the age at which most US states will serve you alcohol.

So what is the theory behind boxes and socks as a gift?

I was afraid that I didn't get it right
Here is the German Wikipedia site:

wiki

The legal age limit is 18 in Australia

100 years ago 16 was considered a significant age and they would throw a debutante ball.

Nowadays we don't do anything significant until ages 40, 50 and 60 when people wear black armbands and give old age gifts wrapped in black.

Elisabeth

16 still gets a party in a lot of places...

/points to VH1's Super Sweet Sixteen and shudders

Carol [who thinks it's VH1]

Don't ask me about our current traditions (but there sure is a lot of drinking going on)....

But a hundred years ago or a little more, the most important thing in a young person's life was a ceremony called 'konfirmation'. It was a religious ceremony, where youngsters, about fourteen, had to study the Bible and learn quite a bit about its teachings. On the big day, when the youngsters (called 'konfirmander') had studied and been instructed by a minister for a certain time, they were asked in church about what the Bible teaches, and then they'd better know the answers! But I don't really know what happened if they didn't. I guess they had to come back and try again next year, because as far as I know you only got one chance every year.

Anyway, if they were successful and if they passed their 'konfirmation', they counted as adults, more or less. No, they were not allowed to get married, not if they were fourteen. But in fact they were not allowed to get married later in life either, if they hadn't passed their 'konfirmation'! So getting 'konfirmerad' was really extremely important.

Anyway, after they had successfully passed their 'konfirmation', the youngsters counted as adults in several ways. Youngsters with low-income parents were expected to leave school, if they hadn't done so already, and start working full time, often as farm hands. And on their big day, the young boys, fourteen years old, were given their first drink of hard liquor. Now they were men!



Successful 'konfirmander'. Freshly-baked adults.

Ann

Actually they still do confirmation, at least here in the states. It obviously doesn't mean all the same things anymore (ie. leaving school and going to work, etc.). My husband grew up Catholic and went through confirmation. If he hadn't gone through confirmation then they wouldn't have allowed us to get married there. Of course, we didn't get married there anyways but if we had wanted to, they wouldn't have let us if he had not been baptised and confirmed.