Reshta coming of age tradition

Reshta have a important coming of age tradition, which for the last centuries parents have asked to stop it but kids want to try it anyway so it is still a thing, but it is now illegal and thus kids do it in private with their friends and without telling any adult about it. In the old times, it happened in mountains or cliffs, but nowadays it happens in the Crater of emea.

History

The kids in the Reshta community are not allowed to use their wings until they turn into adult, as it is believed that their wings have not grown big nor strong enough to support their weight. This lead to the said kids to not know how to fly when they became adults, and by learning from nearby kids, the adults created a coming of age tradition.
The tradition was a hard one, not physically (though many would say it is physically exhausting) but mostly mentally, as it would put the kid into high amount of stress and panic, and while it was not a deadly one (even though some accidents happened), parents started to ask for a change, as many kids started to develop fear of flying or high places. The change they received was the prohibition to do such tradition and from then, the only coming of age tradition would be the ceremony that used to be afterwars the test.
Kids, trying to be brave and to prove to their older friends that they can indeed pass the old tradition, go to the Crater of emea, a place where they do not need to climb, just jump, and proceed to do the tradition. This illegal tradition has lead to many kids dying and to add security during night near the Crater of emea.

Execution

The kids would be taken to a high place (used to be mountains and cliffs and now that it is illegal kids go to the Crater of emea) by one of their parents and they would jump from there, having to learn how to fly while falling as many birds do or they would fall to their death, but there always was an adult Reshta ready to catch them if the kid did not manage to fly.
After the fall, a ceremony would happen where the town would join and have a great dinner, celebration the kids becoming adults. The dinner used to be as long as night, adding alcohol and drugs to make the celebration better and longer. But when the sun came out, the new adults would fly to the nearest temple and there, they would be officially accepted as adults by the priests.

Participants

The kids: all the kids that would become adults that month, do the tradition at the same time
The birds: these are the adults that would catch the kids if they did not manage to fly, there are at least one per kid.

Related Ethnicities

• Reshta

Related location

Crater of emea

by Unsplash