“Kindergarten Here We Come! Clap Your Hands, Beat the Drums, We Are Ready, Everyone!” – Swearing-in Ceremony for Kindergarten Pupils as a Rite of Passage

Anthropological concept of rites the passage in the sphere of pre-school education was applied in the paper. In the case of the ritual of appointing as preschool child one faces specific ritual as regards the place in which it takes place (kindergarten institution) and persons to which it is applied (children at the age of 3 and 4). The aim of a ceremony is socialization of an individual and integration with a group in the first place. Rites of passage share with the analyzed preschool ritual such features as rigid role scheme, structure of a ceremony of ritual actions, functions of a ritual, and the fact that by this ritual integration and cohesion of a group is maintained and the children’s bound with kindergarten workers is augmented. Although the ceremony of appointing as preschool child does not change the status of an individual, it performs important role related to role playing, international functions and the functions set on auto-identification of a child (that stem from group activity). Moreover, by the ceremony the youngest children can show their parents that they learn new abilities, partly different than the ones they experience at their homes. Methodological approach used in the study can be labeled as participant secret observation, close to the “participant-as-observer” category. The ceremony was observed in one of kindergartens in Toruń, in 26 children group, labeled as “Ladybirds”. Field observation was completed, firstly, by the photographic documentation (done during the ritual), secondly, by the ritual scenario (written by the kindergarten teachers), and thirdly, by the interview with the tutor of the observed group of children.