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Texto reemplazado: «<sup>th</sup> century» por «th century»
When the girls and boys reach sixteen or seventeen years old, they join the group of “the young people”. They remain in this age category until they marry. This rite of passage is called “becoming a youth”, ''mutiletan sartu'', in Navarra. The passage from child to youth is marked by certain facts affecting behaviour, the most important of which is they no longer play games.
Until the mid 20<sup>th</sup> 20th century, this transition involved changes to the very clothes worn. It was the time when the young men began to wear long trousers. Nowadays, this change in the way of dressing is irrelevant as children wear long trousers from a very early age. In the past, once they reached this age, girls stopped wearing socks and started using stockings and mid-heeled shoes. They also stopped wearing their hair in ponytails, plaits and ringlets, with ribbons, ''txoriak'', and started to wear their hair loose or in a bun. When young girls were around 16, they would put up their hair and cover it with a headscarf to show they were grown up (Abadiano-B).
In traditional society, youths would enter the world of work as apprentices learning a trade or as servants; they could represent their homestead at neighbourhood meetings and take part in communal work, ''auzolana.'' They left the children’s benches at church and sat in a place further away from the altar.
The period of life in education has been significantly extended since the mid 20<sup>th</sup> 20th century. Therefore, the years as youths now coincide, in the majority of cases, with those spent studying degrees and professions.
On the other hand, if childhood is characterised by play activity, the time of youths is noted for interest in romantic relationships. The singing in the round, festivities and dances in their many different forms would be places where young people of both sexes would meet.
