How do Jewish girls celebrate the bat chagil?

Answer 1

Do you mean a Bat Chayil, which is a ceremony usually for a group of girls who have completed a Bat Chayil course at the age of 13?

The Bat Chayil is similar to the Bat Mitzvah, which is the equivalent of a Bar Mitzvah held for girls. The Bar Mitvah is a celebration held when a boy turns 13 and, following a course of religious instruction, is deemed to have achieved an age and level of emotional/spiritual maturity as to allow him to take on adult roles within the Jewish faith such as serving in the Minyan of ten people that is necessary for formal Jewish worship to take place. In the past, this celebration was for boys only.

However, in these more enlightened times, girls and women perform many of the roles that have traditionally been performed by males alone. With this in mind, many Jews felt that girls should have their own coming of age ceremony and so the Bat Mitzvah was developed. Some denominations celebrate it when the girl turns 12, reflecting the fact that females tend to achieve maturity at a younger age than males, but since it is generally recognised nowadays that equality between the sexes is a goal worth pursuing many now celebrate both events at the age of 13.