A quinceañera traditionally celebrates a girl's transition into womanhood.
The Spanish word quinceañera refers both to the celebrant and to the celebration associated with her fifteenth birthday. In many Latin American communities, the event presents her publicly as reaching a new stage of life.
The celebration is not a legal declaration of adulthood, and it does not mean that the celebrant is marrying or becoming a mother. Those are common misunderstandings caused by treating the ceremony as an exact equivalent of a civil coming-of-age ceremony.
Customs vary by family, country, religion, and generation. Some celebrations include a Catholic thanksgiving Mass, while others are entirely secular. A formal dress, a court of attendants, music, dancing, and a reception are common features, but none is universal.