LIVE BY DESIGN | Rites of passage as celebratory cornerstones of life
Live by Design is a weekly News24 column by Dr Helena Dolny and Mapi Mhlangu on mortality and the conversations around it.
There are different rites of passage in our lives: our arrival, our passage of puberty into adulthood, from adulthood to elderhood, and finally, from elderhood to death. Jewish tradition for boys also requires them to be circumcised on the eighth day of life , perhaps drawing on the ancient practices of the Egyptians and Ethiopians.
The Ghanian tradition,"Dipo", creates a weeklong retreat with bathing rituals, a special drink and older women sharing their life lessons about sex, womanhood, and well-being. The week ends with a community ceremony, which includes skin decoration and a dance called the"klama." Certain North American Indigenous people have a similar four-day retreat.
For example, I could fly to Los Cabos in México for two nights during the spring solstice and spend R30 000 to participate in"Celebrating the Crone and the Senex". What is missing for me so far is any formal societal embrace - say, for example, I always notice Chinese elderly doing Tai Chi and their presence in kindergarten photos as assistants.This is where Mapi and I are trying to consciously write on topics to support all of us, irrespective of our spiritual orientation, to design our lives to secure a dignified departure.