"...there are no rituals or celebrations sanctioned in American popular culture or in Western religion for a girl's first menstruation..."* yet "...every girl who ever grew has needed to know she has made a successful transition from girlhood to womanhood within the value system of her own culture"**

Do you remember your first period? Do you remember what your family and friends did and didn't do? Said and didn't say? It could have been different...

Imagine instead a menstruation ritual where the your mother, grandmother, other female relatives, and women elders of your community gather to celebrate your transition into womanhood. During the ritual you are honored and acknowledged for your character, accomplishments, and interests. You are encouraged to expressively dress yourself, prepare a short speech, recite poetry or prose, or perform a dance that best expresses how you perceive the world. You are supported in sharing your dreams and aspirations. You claim your place in the circle of women with a traditional chant, one your mother sung, and her mother...

Sacred blood of the Mother runs through my veins,

And with each lunation, scarlet She rains.

Mother to daughter passes this gift.

Blessed be the Mother, within us She lives.***

Your ritual ends by affirms your emerging sexuality as your own; the circle blesses you to love your heart's choice. Food and drink appear, and the party turns rowdy. Someone remembers an old, old song from the days when women were just starting to return to the Goddess. Everyone joins in on the chorus: 

You might think it's ludicrous,

But when the moon is full I feel my uterus,

And I know that time's a-coming, coming soon.

Some sisters get down for menstruation,

Ain't no time for sad desperation:

There's a new day coming when you got the bloods again.

Chorus:

Because you know your body is a-working all right,

If you had self-help, you could watch all night.

Get your speculum at your neighborhood clinic.

Learn about your cervix and what's in it.

There's a new day coming when you got the bloods again.

If you're feeling bad and you start to moan,

Well don't you hide, you're not alone.

I know that time is coming, a-coming soon.

When you're living together, this I found:

When the bloods come they come all way around.

There's a new day coming when you got the bloods again.

Chorus

Men keep saying that the bloods are bad,

'Cause it means you ain't fertile, that you ain't been had.

I know that time is coming, a-coming soon.

Men...stop saying that you'll sleep with 'em,

'Cause lesbians they got natural rhythm.

There's a new day coming when you got the bloods again.

Chorus****