A period to celebrate

Posted on 7 June, 2017

How was your first period?

Was it a celebrated by your mother and aunties? Did you feel proud? Could you talk comfortably to other girls and women about it?

Sadly for many women of our generation the answers to these questions are ‘no’.  We regularly hear stories from Canberra women about how ill-prepared they were for their first period.  Their mothers were too uncomfortable or embarrassed to adequately support their daughters through this vulnerable time.

Tea, henna and supported conversations about puberty and fertility.

Thirty years on and we asked ourselves “How much has changed for girls today as they approach their first period?” Julia Dendrinos – a Naturopath and Yoga Teacher with over 20 years experience in facilitating health and education programs – and I became Celebration Day for Girls  facilitators because our community and our girls deserve to have a better induction into their womanhood.  All successful societies have rites of passage and Celebration Day for Girls is a new way of honouring and celebrating girls on the cusp of one of the most significant times of change in their lives.  Our hope is that celebrating the start of menstruation will enable girls to start off on their journey to womanhood feeling comfortable and knowledgeable about their bodies, to feel special about their emerging fertility, and to embrace being a young woman.

Julia Dendrinos is a Celebration Day for Girls facilitator.

Celebration Day was created by Jane Bennett back in 2000. There are now over 100 Facilitators in 11 countries and its popularity is continuing to spread.

Workshops focus on craft activities, stories and positive information which gently opens up the conversations and questions around puberty and periods in a way that dissipates feelings of embarrassment and shame that are still common around menstruation.

Lifting the taboos around periods and opening up the conversation after generations of silence is a gift for women of all ages.  There is still much work to be done in breaking down the unspoken barriers and shame in our society and replacing it with a culture where homes, schools and workplaces are ‘period friendly’ and girls comfortable with and supported.

Another gift of Celebration Day is the warmth, trust and enhanced communication between mothers and daughters. The workshop creates a space where mothers feel positive and confident to start this important conversation with their daughters.  They are then able to go home and continue this and other important conversations in an open and comfortable way.  Open communication, honesty and trust are all crucial to ingredients to successfully navigating the teenage years with your daughter.

The average women will have around 385 periods and will spend about six and a half years of her life menstruating.  That’s a significant part of a woman’s life!  The Mother’s session has shown us how much women benefit from being able to share their story in a supported environment.  They also gain insights and ideas about how they can create a better experience for their daughter.

We also see this as a way of supporting “tweens” and teenagers to make healthy choices around body image, confidence and self-esteem.

Currently, we very much concentrate on menstruation and how a girl has to “manage” when having her period.  We actually do not acknowledge the importance of menstruation and the menstrual cycle.  We should celebrate the sacredness of how special the menstrual cycle is so that girls feel special and have a discreet sense of pride in this gift.

the essentials

What: Celebration Day for Girls
When: Sunday June 25 from 10am-4pm
Where: Garran Yoga Studio, 9 Stone Place Garran
Cost: $150
Tickets: Book here