Menarche

Not Yet a Women, No Longer a Little Girl

Menarche marks a young adolescent girl's advancement into womanhood. Menarche is a young woman's first menstrual period. Every woman has her own story of when and where this marker event occurred. In a healthy relationship, mothers and daughters both will anticipate a girl's menarche. It is generally the mother's role to prepare for her daughter's future menarche by educating her about her body.

Menarche is an important time in a young woman's life. Naturally the gathering for your daughter's rite of passage will be impromptu. Keep ready your list of nurturing women in your daughter's life to invite. Menarche is an excellent time for a girl to choose a Goddess as her first matron deity.

Menarche doesn't mean that womanhood has been achieved. It is simply the next step from girlhood into womanhood. Womaning rituals can be held for young women who have reached that precarious time when they begin to leave the nest.

How might it have been different for you,
if, on your first menstrual day your mother had given you
a bouquet of flowers and taken you to lunch
and then the two of you had gone
to meet your father at the jeweller,
where your ears were pierced,
and your father bought you your first pair of earings,
and then you went with a few of your friends and your mother's friends to get your first lip colouring;

and then you went,
for the very first time,
to the Women's Lodge,
to learn
the Wisdom of the Women?

How might your life be different?

-- Judith Duerk, Circle of Stones

Menarche Information Links

All Things Yoni: Menarche

Celebrate Girls: First Moon Kit

Healingwise: Menarche Rituals

Menarche Party Ideas: About.com

New Moon Period Pack

Red Party: a Menarche Welcoming Rite

The Red Box Company

The Red Web

Tryskelion: Menarche Rite

Wikipedia: Menarche Rites of Passage

Wikipedia: The Triple Goddess

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