noun
traditional coming-of-age ceremony for children
Historical Japanese rite of passage in which boys received a new loincloth (褌) and girls a new underskirt, marking a step toward adulthood. Now largely obsolete; encountered mainly in historical or ethnographic contexts.
江戸時代には、褌祝いという通過儀礼が行われていた。
In the Edo period, a rite of passage called hekoiwai was performed.
この地方では、褌祝いの風習が近
In this region, the custom of hekoiwai survived until recent years.
Ateji spelling using 兵児 for へこ; rare and mainly historical.
Compound of 褌 (fundoshi, 'loincloth') + 祝い (iwai, 'celebration'). The reading へこ is an older or dialectal variant of ふんどし. The exact historical origin of the ceremony is uncertain, but it is associated with pre-modern Japanese life-stage rituals.