This past weekend, the family attended the Annaprashan of my dear friend's daughter, Anusha. An Annaprashan is a ritual celebrating the taking of the first solid foods. Anusha is six months old and on the designated day, the family makes 20 different dishes and her paternal uncle or grandfather feeds her some of each. We also blessed her with kernels of rice. Although no one told me the specific meaning, I can think of a few fitting meanings - like abundance and wealth.
The actual day was on a Wednesday, but the family threw a big festivity on a Saturday, so that we could ALL enjoy the wonderful Indian food!
We noticed a few things:
Indians don't have any prohibitions about feeding babies honey. At least this crowd didn't. One friend told me that they encourage it, to give babies sweet voices.
Indian women dress up; Indian men dress down. Even Das, Anusha's father in the gold tunic, was wearing comfy old jeans underneath. But NONE of the women were dressed down. Not a one.
Babies love Bollywood. No one here is surprised.
All in all, I like this ritual. It made sense. To my mind, it seemed a pretty earthly religious ritual, couched in practical considerations. It's makes sense to celebrate that the baby could survive now, without mother's milk, on rice and food. In a world that is not always giving and abundant, this is a valid milestone.
In other news, we are dog sitting for my aunt and uncle. Two ageless pomeranians who we've dubbed Vampirus and the Undead. Seriously, the one dog might be 16 years old. Before they left, I had a long discussion on what to do if the dog dies. I really hope she doesn't die - that'd just be annoying.
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