The study of aging!

Gerontology!

Of course, anything that's put into human context has a scientific study for it. To be more exact, gerontology studies the social, biological, and psychological aspects of aging.

There is more to it though, the scientific study of the aging process is known as biogerontology (which I most probably am NOT touching on), the aging population (NOT touching on it too), normal aging and age-related diseases (NO NO NO... not touching on it). Okay, so it seems like I should steer clear away from researching on gerontology since it seems to be the 'age' that I'm not touching on.

I'm more interested in the cultural notions of age. Such as the celebratory stages in life. For instance in many western cultures, or cultures that have been influenced by the west celebrate their 21st birthdays, since it represents the coming of age as an adult. The less celebrated, but just as popular sweet 16, has been made into a MTV reality program that documents spoilt rich kids in 'My Super Sweet 16' on their birthdays. In the Japanese tradition, the 'Seven-Five-Three' (shichi-go-san) festival celebrates the age of boys who are three and five years-old, and girls who are seven years-old by visiting the Shinto shrine for blessings of health and happiness.

Also, traditionally the Chinese count their ages differently. Instead of being born on the 7th of December 1985 (Age 23), technically I'd be 24 now, with my upcoming birthday being celebrated on the 12th of December instead. Try this website for your lunar age!
http://www.asia-home.com/china/cncaps.php

With the counting of age, comes the rites of passage which marks an important event that changes a person's social status. Rites of passage is a global phenomenon, each culture with their different rituals and ways of celebrating. For the Jews, boys who reach the age of 13, and girls who reach the age of 12 become responsible for themselves, also coinciding with them transiting from children to teenagers.

For now, I think I'll be researching on the different rites of passage in all around the world, as important markings of time seem to be the direction that I'd love to head to. After all, life is short, and remembering how the way you were shows how much you've grown.