Others, before learning of the serious health risks, had allowed their daughters to undergo the painful rite, which is steeped in tradition and myth.

Or it became a painful rite, a way to carry on while everything else, from personal security to economic stability, seemed so uncertain and remote.

Everywhere people go through painful rites, large and small, of separation and rupture.

In some cultures, extreme practices such as mortification of the flesh or painful rites of passage are highly regarded.

But it seemed inconceivable that a mother and daughter in Briarcliff Manor would have engaged in such a painful rite.

Its ideas and magic system are promising, but getting the most out them will be a long and painful rite of passage.

To give up your license - because of illness or disability - is a painful rite of regression.

As we shall so often find, religion often provides the means that get people through the painful rite of passage to modernity.

I should add, however, that it presents the best possible scenario of an extremely painful rite of passage.

In many indigenous cultures, painful rites are used to mark sexual maturity, marriage, procreation, or other major life stages.