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In Chinese culture we celebrate the baby’s first month birthday. A few weeks ago, we held such a party for Garret (who is now 6 weeks old) at our house, where family and friends gathered for a Chinese feast. Since my parents come from mainland China, they still honor many Chinese traditions, and I’m usually keen to adopt them. Another tradition (that I didn’t stick to) is the expectation that mom and baby stay indoors for 30 days to rest and be safe from potential germs and illness. After 30 days, parents introduce their baby to friends and relatives; kind of like a coming out party for mom and baby.

Before guests arrived, Garret was bathed and dressed in new clothes and adorned with juniper leaves and given red envelopes (lycee, or lucky money). Then, we lit incense, made an offering of food and conducted a blessing ceremony for him with prayers for a happy and harmonious life.

Food is a highlight of the party, and my dad, being a retired chef, was only too keen to cook for 30 people. There were all sorts of dishes including spring rolls, sticky rice, sweet and sour chicken, stir fried veggies, prawns, and of course noodles, which are symbolic of long life. It was topped off by carrot cake (from my favourite cookbook - The Rebar Cookbook) and ginger snaps and fresh fruit.

It is also customary to pass out red-dyed eggs to the guests. Red is a sign of happiness in Chinese culture and eggs are symbolic of fertility, with their round shape symbolic of harmony and happy life.

Some people also call the event a “naming ceremony” and use it as an opportunity to tell everyone the baby’s given name. The Chinese believe a name may somehow determine the future of the child. My mom suggested Garret’s Chinese name be “see yin” which means “strong and kind”. I like that!

Life as a family of four is wonderful and we feel truly blessed to have Garret in our lives. He is quite a mellow baby and has now started cooing and smiling. As much as Aiden loves his little brother, the adjustment for him has been harder, so I’ll write again later about some really interesting parenting books that are helping us deal with his new behaviours.

This entry was posted on Tuesday, October 17th, 2006 at 8:56 am by Suzanne and is filed under Birthing, Babies and Parenting. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.