Its called Naamkaran, the ceremony that takes place in which a baby receives his or her name from a Hindu priest. Naam means name and Karan means celebration, or something of that nature. We went to be a part of the naming of the baby of Abhinav's aunt. He was born April 7th and just now received his name on May 25th, a month and a half later. In the U.S. we would find this strange that a baby doesn't have a real name for almost two months. How can he have a birth certificate made without a name? What would everyone call him for the time being? And why wait for so long, you've had nine months to consider your options?
According to Hindu religion every person has specific astrological attributes according to the time of their birth. In the case of names, the priest must determine the star constellation in which the moon is placed during the baby's time of birth. According to this, their are some options for the baby's name. Usually the priest will give the first letter or beginning sound that fits with the zodiac and then the family can choose a name that goes with the given first letter.
Unfortunately, we ended up being a little late for part of the ceremony and then a gigantic storm came through that postponed a lot of the fun, food and dancing. But we did get to be there to celebrate and meet the precious little boy....everyone meet Ekaksh.
According to Hindu religion every person has specific astrological attributes according to the time of their birth. In the case of names, the priest must determine the star constellation in which the moon is placed during the baby's time of birth. According to this, their are some options for the baby's name. Usually the priest will give the first letter or beginning sound that fits with the zodiac and then the family can choose a name that goes with the given first letter.
Unfortunately, we ended up being a little late for part of the ceremony and then a gigantic storm came through that postponed a lot of the fun, food and dancing. But we did get to be there to celebrate and meet the precious little boy....everyone meet Ekaksh.
Mother-In-Law holding Ekaksh...check out how much hair he has!
Me holding the baby.
And here he is :)
--Note: the black dot on the side of his forehead is not a big mole. Its black makeup put there to keep away evil spirits (the evil eye)...more about this later. And the red dot is a tikka, or type of blessing.
No comments:
Post a Comment