07 Sep The Wonder of Baby Ceremonies
A few days ago I led a baby naming ceremony for a one year old, where 30 friends & family gathered in the garden of the family home to formally give him his name, and to welcome him into the family and wider community. A Baby Naming is just one of a number of ceremonies that are aimed at formally recognising a new life in the world. As well as Naming Ceremonies, there can be ‘Welcome Ceremonies’ and ‘Baby Blessings’. But whatever you choose to call the ceremony, they are all designed to recognise & honour the gift of a new life.
Traditionally this would have been a Christening service, but as we in the Western world have drifted (and sometimes sprinted) away from organised religion, what we haven’t realised is that in the rush, we have also run away from ceremony itself, and the spiritual support a ceremony can bring.
Nowadays, we often view giving birth as something quite routine, and the ceremonies we see are usually, “Gender Reveal Parties” or “Baby Showers” where the focus of the event is drinking alcohol from baby bottles and licking chocolate from a nappy! Now I’m no party pooper (pun intended) and there’s absolutely no reason that you can’t have a celebration but, besides death, the birth of a child is the most spiritual event that will happen in your lifetime, and I’m sorry but a shot of vodka and a burst balloon doesn’t quite cut it.
Whenever a new soul comes into the world, our lives are blessed and enriched beyond measure. The new life is a sign of hope, and the miracle of birth offers us a wonderful opportunity to awaken our spirituality. And if, like me you believe we are all part of the same life force, then whenever a new soul comes into the world, the voices of all souls, past, present & future lift in a song of recognition and welcome.
A baby ceremony is such a joyful way of honouring this important rite of passage, but without any of the religious content that turns so many of us off.
Instead it can be filled with words and rituals that are personal and meaningful for the family. Sunday’s Naming Ceremony was a beautiful ceremony filled with promises, blessings and love. And because the baby’s name Struan means, “small stream” his mum and dad chose to incorporate a water blessing with water collected from a local stream. This was placed in a quaich, and as I read a blessing, his parents poured a little of the water on his hands. Afterwards we invited everyone to dip their finger in the quaich and gently touch the back of his hand, offering a blessing at the same time.
The family also chose to include a ‘Time Capsule’ as part of the ceremony, where everyone was invited to write a message and take a photo on an instamatic camera, to be placed in the capsule for Struan to open on his 21st birthday.
Afterwards everyone commented on the depth of meaning within the ceremony, and how it had brought home the wonder of new life in the world.
“Ritual and ceremony in their due times kept the world under the sky and the stars in their courses.
It was astonishing what ritual and ceremony could do.”
Terry Pratchett
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