Bar Mitzvah

Today, I headed down to the Kotel- figured some heartfelt tefillos were in order.

As I passed through the security gate, there were tons of people there, singing and laughing.
Some video cameras were standing around, with several of the women wearing matching silver and white head scarves, and the men wearing white kippot.

I headed toward the Kotel, and watched as hundreds of people gathered on all sides of the mechitza, cheering, smiling, and snapping pictures.
When I questioned one of the video guys, he said that they were filming a bar mitzvah at the Kotel.

Quite a large bar mitzvah if you ask me. There were people on every available space, staring into the men's section. I curled up in the warm side room by the edge of the Kotel, since the gusts of bitter wind were threatening to topple me over otherwise.

So, I started thinking. In the US, my neighbor made a very extravagant bar mitzvah. She took over our entire shul's hall (quite large, we've had weddings there.), decorated to the hilt, and invited dozens of people. She also had a gathering during the week, and an improptu one for the family.
In Israel, my neighbor is planning a bar mitzvah for the summer. She has to do a party by shul on Shabbos, one during the week when he actually is bar mitzvah, one for the school, and one private get together for the family as well.

Wow. That's a lot of celebration for a bar mitzvah! I would think that some of these would be less expensive or extravagant than weddings, but it doesn't work out like that. At least for a wedding it's just one event, on one day (Okay, we'll count the vort also.) . These have several events for several days. (At least as far as I know, Sheva Brachos is made by several different families, not the hosts.)

So what does the blogging world think about Bar Mitzvahs? Should they be large, in the middle- should we fly everyone to Israel, or should we cut down on some of the multitudes of parties?
It's a good question to think about.