In Lois Lowry’s The Giver, twelve-year-olds receive their life assignments at the Ceremony of Twelve. The event marks the point when children are assigned the adult roles they will perform in the community.
Jonas expects to receive an ordinary assignment, but the Chief Elder selects him as the next Receiver of Memory. His unusual selection begins his training with the current Receiver, who becomes known as the Giver, and exposes Jonas to memories that the community has suppressed.
The ceremony is part of a larger age-based system in which children receive new responsibilities and privileges at earlier ceremonies. It should not be confused with Jonas’s assignment itself: the ceremony is the public event, while Receiver of Memory is his designated role. Lowry published the novel in 1993.