rite of passage

noun

1. Anthropology. a ceremony performed to facilitate or mark a person’s change of status upon any of several highly important occasions, as at the onset of puberty or upon entry into marriage or into a clan.
2. any important act or event that serves to mark a passage from one stage of life to another.

noun

1. a ceremony performed in some cultures at times when an individual changes his status, as at puberty and marriage
2. a significant event in a transitional period of someone’s life

n.

1. A ritual or ceremony signifying an event in a person’s life indicative of a transition from one stage to another, as from adolescence to adulthood.