No, they aren't the same at all.
In practice they got historically linked but there never was any doctrinal reason to do so.
It seems to harken back to the concern that the person understood communion before communing.
Well the period when the person would be taught about communion and the pastor would know the person understood and such was confirmation so it became the practice in many places to give communion after confirmation. Communion is still often referred to as reading for the minister in my Norwegian tradition. It's why everyone in Norway could read at the time of the Civil War in America.
If the pastor would have taken the time to teach younger people about communion of if he was satisfied that they knew and understood what was going on he was free to commune them at much earlier ages. Guess one thing that hasn't changed is ministers still tend to have more to do than time to do it. So one could argue that linking communion with confirmation was basically the result of laziness.
Now you see many congregations getting away from that and giving communion earlier. Most that are doing it are actually being pretty good about educating the children, the sloppiness that is common often comes later. With many congregations being pretty careful before letting a 10 year old commune but some 30 year old without a clue wanders in and they commune him in many cases without question.
if i am understanding you correctly, then i agree with this statement, yes we do in (all)(saying this because WE cannot know what is in the hearts of man thats only up to God) churches have people recieving communion without any thought of what it really means, no matter what the age, i think at times my 12 yr old can understand it better then my 72 yr old mother.
Some people think communing early is some sort of abuse or something because that isn't what they are used to, or they for some reason think it's the same in Lutheranism as Catholicism.
For some reason many people seem to think Lutheranism is simply Catholicism without the Pope or the cult of the Saints.
Confirmation is not a sacrament, though it is of course difficult to see how a person could go through a couple of years of studying God's Word without benefit. It was retained as a useful thing. In some Catholic churches the important thing about confirmation is the rite with the Bishop, the education is very poor, or not emphasized at all. With Lutherans it is the education that is important, while the confirmation ceremony(this is where i am lost, why the ceremony?) has some cultural significance and is used to some degree in congregational government, there is no great importance.
