These ceremonies are held to observe a person's entry into a new stage of life and can be anything from a high school graduation ceremony or a birthday party, to a funeral.
Most rites help people to understand their new roles in society.
They can also help others learn to treat people in new ways after they experience certain rites of passage. A rite that would fall into this category would be birth. The infant leaves a very safe and secure environment in their mother's womb to an extremely different one in the real world. Death can also be a separation rite, depending on a person's belief about what happens after someone dies. Societies have devised ways to mark these separations and aid in the transitions that will take place.