The+Upanayana

The boy, before the Upanayana ceremony, eats his **last meal with his mother**, because he will have to eat with the men in his family after the ceremony. His head is **shaved**, he is **bathed**, cleaned, and puts on a **girdle made of deerskin** (or cotton). He is given a **wooden staff** at the ceremony and then is given the Sacred Thread or //Upavita//. "This thread, or upavita, consists of three cords, each of which is made by twisting three strands” (113). The three threads represent the i**ndividual existence and their unity.**
 * Before the Ceremony**

The Upanayana is the biggest ceremony in male life; it is the **“rebirth”** or the upanayana (thread ceremony). Only males who are in **middle and upper class** go through this, so you can see still a bit of the **caste system** bleeding through on some of their traditions. The caste system was practiced very much in ancient Hindu times. The boy's spirit is reborn, because at birth, **only the body is born**--the spirit waits for this moment, therefore people of the fourth class—the last one—are only born **physically**, not spiritually because they aren't able to go though this ceremony.
 * The Ceremony**

After the ceremony, the boy and priest put wood into a sacred fire, the first of a sacrifice for the boy. Like in Judaism, the Hindu ceremony, the thread ceremony is an **actual ceremony**, and unlike the Islam rites of passage, the Hindu and Jewish rites are actual ceremonies. In Islam, there is **sacrifice of time and effort**. In Hinduism, there is a **physical** sacrifice, as well as a **spiritual** sacrifice. Every religion has a sacrifice in one form or another, a sacrifice of yourself during prayer, or services. Judaism is similar to Hinduism in the coming of age ceremonies because, like previously mentioned, it is a sacrifice of oneself, it is one of the most time consuming, being another school in learning Hebrew. In Islam children start to learn prayers when they first learn to speak, being a sacrifice of oneself, also of time, and effort.
 * The Sacrafice**

Wangu, Madhu Bazaz. __Hinduism World Religions.__ New York: Facts on File, 1991.

....Comparing to Buddhism