I'm 21 today, 21 today
I've got the key of the door
Never been 21 before
And Pa says I can do as I like
So shout, Hip Hip Hooray
He's a jolly good fellow
21 today
We took flowers and presents and we all sang the first 3 lines before my eldest granddaughter blew out the candles and we did shout Hip Hip Hooray before she cut the cake but that was as far as we went. This traditional coming of age song (in the UK) is long and meandering and meant to be sung by a young man because when it was written (1911), young ladies didn't enjoy a similar independence.
So why do we celebrate 21 so enthusiastically and does it happen world wide? Interested, I did some research and discovered that in the UK it stems from medieval times when a young boy was training to become a knight. At 7 years of age he would leave home to become page to a knight and for the next 7 years would be his servant. Not until he reached the grand age of 14 would he be made a squire and his duties elevated to looking after his master's armour and weapons and to saddling his horse. His duties stretched further. He was also expected to follow his knight into battle acting as his flag bearer, and in the unfortunate event of his master being killed, would have to bury him. A very different life from the 14 year olds in Western countries today!
If the boy managed to survive all of that and grow to manhood he would be dubbed a knight in his own right when he reached the age of 21, and be celebrated.
From this, and very gradually, 21 became the established age of majority. While the tradition was to give the young person the key of the door, symbolising that they were old enough to make their own decisions and come and go as they pleased, legally it was significant. It was the age when people could marry without parental consent, the age when an apprenticeship ended in many trades, the age at which a person could vote, the age in which guardianship came to an end for orphaned children. There were exceptions of course, because until the Equal Franchise Act was passed in 1928 women could not vote until they were 30 and then only if they owned property.
There were other anomalies too. Young couples who managed to travel to Scotland could marry at 16 and, despite the many changes in the law that have taken place in the past century, Gretna Green, where most of these marriages took place, is still considered a place of romance, with couples from all around the world choosing to get married there in a ceremony performed over a blacksmith's anvil in a centuries old tradition. So popular was the idea that it was sometimes part of a plot in fiction in earlier times, the best example being Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austin.
Nowadays, with the legal majority reduced to 18, celebrating a 21st birthday carries far less significance and is mainly only celebrated because it's fun, and everyone likes a party! There are, however, still one or two things that cannot be undertaken until a person of either sex reaches their 21 majority. For example they cannot drive large vehicles, gain a pilot's licence, supervise a learner driver, or adopt a child. Fortunately I don't think my granddaughter is contemplating any of those things. She just enjoyed her party!
Postscript:
In the UK in Anglo-Saxon times a young person was considered adult at the age of 11. This was later increased to 12, which continued until Norman times when the age of majority was extended to 16 except for those training to become knights. How times have changed. We no longer send children as young as 5 into the black hellhole of underground mines, or up chimneys to sweep out the soot, or into battle at 14. Nor do apprentices any longer sleep where they work, relying solely on their masters for the food they eat. Sadly, in many of the war torn and poverty stricken countries around the world, however, similar things still happen. Children have no option but to take on responsibilities that would deter most adults. Children as young as 5 work 14 hour days picking cacao beans while 11 year olds work from dawn to dusk in the heat and dirt of a blacksmith's forge because they are their family's main or only breadwinner. There are children who have to scavenge on scrap heaps, others who work in unregulated factories and, even more dreadfully, there are still 14 year olds who have to go into battle, not with a flag following their knight, but with rifles and machetes as they fight for their lives and the lives of their families. While these are not things that need to be contemplated by more fortunate youngsters enjoying a 21st birthday party, hopefully they will at least think of them later when they realise that, at last, the really are adults.
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