Honouring Life's Milestones in 21st Century Australia.

Rites of passage reflect an innate human need to understand our existence and how it is affected by both our personal physical development and changes in circumstances that come with the inevitable passage of time. Rites, celebrations and ceremonies are ways in which we are able to demonstrate to the world and to those close to us that we recognise the significance of change and growth and the stages through which our lives pass.

Historically, acknowledgments of significant life events have been rooted in religious practice and tradition. Australian society today is less uniform in its religious observance than in decades past. Where once the way in which the majority of the community lived was to a large extent predictable and uniform, compliance with societal norms is now much less guaranteed. Notwithstanding the development of Australia into a more diverse and complex community, interweaving a large number of historical and cultural traditions, there is still a deep human need to make sense of the passage of our lives and the milestones we pass along our way.

Regardless of the nature of our modern community, the turning of the seasons, the passing of our years, our achievements, our losses, and even our ultimate ends, benefit from being understood better through rite and ritual. While perhaps not strictly a “need”, ritual reinforces our understanding of ourselves and the nature of our lives. Whether from a deeply religious, or purely humanist perspective, ritual makes these events special, memorable and important, and demonstrates to ourselves, our loved ones and to the world at large that we share this life and its common experiences and acknowledge the beauty of its transient nature.