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A life cycle ritual is a ceremony to mark a change in a person's biological or social status at various phases throughout life. Such practices are found in many societies and are often based on traditions of a community. Life cycle rituals may also have religious significance that is stemmed from different ideals and beliefs.
A life cycle ritual can best be described as a ceremony undergone by an individual when he or she enters one phase of life to another. The term may be synonymous with ‘rite of passage’ as described by Arnold van Gennep in his 1909 work ‘Rite of Passage’. although can be described as more specifically to do with major biological life events such as birth, adolescence, marriage and death. Van Gennep described society as being composed of “…several disparate social groupings”. He further divided these social groupings into either secular or sacred , the latter being the category most closely associated with life cycle rituals.
Van Gennep classified rituals as broadly belonging to one of three categories: separation, liminal and incorporation. The separation phase involves the individual leaving one group or life phase at a point in time and the incorporation phase involves them joining the new phase. The liminal phase is the transitive phase in between the two where the individual has left one phase but not yet joined the next.
The various phases of the life cycle were described by David Lancy as belonging to six practical categories: 1] Birth and early infancy, which the author describes as ritually being the least important given the doubt over the child's survival; 2] Joining the community when the infant's survival is confirmed, usually denoted by a naming ceremony; 3] Separation, marked by removing the child from the mother's breast or when the child starts walking; 4] Getting noticed i.e. when the child starts becoming useful, usually by beginning to help around the house; 5] Adolescence, described as being highly variable across cultures and most commonly being marked by an initiation ceremony and 6] Adulthood, which the author says in most cultures is the point when the individual sires offspring.