Even though turning 21 now has few, if any, legal effects in most of these countries, its former legal status as the age of majority has caused it to continue to be celebrated. But in the early twentieth century, the age of legal majority was 21, although the marriageable age was typically lower. At 18, one is legally enabled to vote, purchase tobacco and alcohol, marry without parental consent (although one can wed at 16 in Scotland and New Zealand) and sign contracts. However, the legal age of majority is 18 in most of these countries. ![]() In Anglo-Celtic cultures, (such as Australia, New Zealand, the United Kingdom, and Ireland) when a female reaches 16 years of age, she may have a sweet sixteenth birthday party. The bride's hair was ritually styled in "six tresses" (seni crines), and she was veiled until uncovered by her husband at the end of the ceremony, a ritual of surrendering her virginity to him. The knot symbolized wifely chastity, in that it was to be untied only by her husband, but the cingulum also symbolized that the bridegroom "was belted and bound" to his wife. On her wedding day, she belted her tunic with the cingulum, made from the wool of an ewe to symbolize fertility, and tied with the " knot of Hercules", which was supposed to be hard to untie. Her weaving of the tunica recta and the hairnet demonstrated her skill and her capacity for acting in the traditional matron's role as custos domi, "guardian of the house". The confining of her hair signifies the harnessing of her sexuality within marriage. On the night before the wedding, the bride bound up her hair with a yellow hairnet she had woven. Patrician males, however, might marry considerably earlier Julius Caesar was married for the first time by the age of 18. ![]() Males typically postponed marriage till they had served in the military for some time and were beginning their political careers, around age 25. Weddings, however, were often postponed until the girl was considered mature enough. The general age of betrothal for women of the upper classes was fourteen, but for patricians as early as twelve. The higher the social rank of a girl, the sooner she was likely to become betrothed and married. Roman girls were expected to remain virgins until marriage, but boys were often introduced to heterosexual behaviors by a prostitute. The garment was called recta because it was woven by tradition on a type of upright loom that had become archaic in later periods. All adolescents in ritual preparation to transition to adult status wore the tunica recta, the "upright tunic", but girls wove their own. Girls coming of age dedicated their dolls to Artemis, the goddess most concerned with virginity, or to Aphrodite when they were preparing for marriage. Rome lacked the elaborate female puberty rituals of ancient Greece, and for girls, the wedding ceremony was in part a rite of passage for the bride. Traditionally, the ceremony was held on the Liberalia, the festival in honor of the god Liber, who embodied both political and sexual liberty, but other dates could be chosen for individual reasons. He assumed the toga virilis ("toga of manhood"), was enrolled as a citizen on the census, and soon began his military service. The puberty ritual for the young Roman male involved shaving his beard and taking off his bulla, an amulet worn to mark and protect underage youth, which he then dedicated to his household gods, the Lares. In certain states in Ancient Greece, such as Sparta and Crete, adolescent boys were expected to enter into a mentoring relationship with an adult man, in which they would be taught skills pertaining to adult life, such as hunting, martial arts and fine arts. ![]() ![]() In either case, many cultures retain ceremonies to confirm the coming of age, and coming-of-age stories are a well established sub-genre in literature, film industry, and other forms of media. Particularly in western societies, modern legal conventions which stipulate points in around the end of adolescence and the beginning of early adulthood (most commonly 18, with the range being 16-21) when adolescents are generally no longer considered minors and are granted the full rights and responsibilities of an adult) are the focus of the transition. In others, it is associated with an age of religious responsibility. In the past, and in some societies today, such a change is associated with the age of sexual maturity ( puberty), especially menarche and spermarche. It can be a simple legal convention or can be part of a ritual or spiritual event, as practiced by many societies. The specific age at which this transition takes place varies between societies, as does the nature of the change. Coming of age is a young person's transition from being a child to being an adult.
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