CROSSCULTURE CONTEST: REFLECTING THE ARRIVAL OF A NEW CHILD

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I am glad to have come across this contest through @cool08 post yesterday where he tagged me to participate. Thank you for the tag.

I found this contest title Interesting and I decided to opt in too so I can tell you how naming ceremony is done in my own culture and tribe. I am a Yoruba lady and I must say that there are different ways we observe our naming ceremony in Yoruba land. I am a Christian and the way we name our child is different from the way the Muslim do theirs and I don't think the Muslim take their babies for dedication as we do when we take them to the Church to be dedicated.

With this being said, I want to narrate how we do ours using my younger Sister's ceremony. I want to go live with it. Lol

My sister who is the last born of the house was given birth to in the year 2004 and as a normal thing, my mom was pregnant and carried the pregnancy for nine months. Or is it possible to throw a child from heaven? 😅

Mothers are really trying at this period. They go to the hospital for ante-natal care, did scanning to know the gender of the child. Either a male or female and then they proceed to buying baby's clothes. In most cases, some mothers aren't always sure of the baby, so they buy
unisex clothing that would go for both sexes.

My mom already knew the baby would be a girl according to the scan she did at the hospital but she couldn't deliver the baby there. We all were born in a white garment church.

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My mom bought the baby's items and kept. When she was pregnant, she and my Dad had written down some names to be given to her and at this stage, parents needs to be careful and prayerful also to commit those names into God's hand. Every name have a meaning attached to the child's destiny. As parents, you just don't give names to your children thinking this name is beautiful and can suit him or her.

Some parents would either wait for the child to be born and before the naming ceremony day, they would have come together to agree on some names to be given.

At last, a baby girl was born into the world. It took my mom two days more in the church before coming home.

This is when people will start coming to visit us and welcoming the new child and will be saying
"Eku Ewu Omo oo" let me try with the meaning with explanation 😁
You know it isn't easy to give birth? That moment the mother would be in pain, groaning and then trying to push harder for the baby to come out. Some women can't go through the pain of pushing and with this, they are advised to go for CS, an operation to bring the baby out from the stomach. But after the pain, the baby and the mother are in good condition. This is why the visitors and those who came visiting will greet the mother and appreciate her effort.

Naming ceremony comes up on the 7th day after the baby is born and within that days, preparation would be going on. The cook, DJs, Canopies and chairs, different food and water, drinks etc.
The pastor to come around during the day would have been told to get prepared. Everything was intact then. We killed cows, I was even there when they were killing the cow because I was a young girl then and seeing everything, we were so happy.

On the 7th day, the ceremony will start. The parent of the baby would be sitted at the front while the Pastor would pray for the child and the parents.

They prayed for my sister and parent. Then, they brought the baby to the pastor to give the names to her. Everyone stood up and prayed. After then, the pastor called out the names one by one and the whole People repeated after him.

They gave her 4 names and the Pastor sanctified those names. Those who brought gifts for the child will start bringing them to present to the parents too.

After the end of the naming, foods were served to everyone who attended the ceremony and at the end, they all went home.

That was how the naming ceremony went successfully. After 40days according to tradition, the baby was brought to the church for dedication.

That is all about naming a child in my own culture.

I will be inviting @olawalium @maryjacy @amberkashif to participate in this contest too.

Here is the link to the contest

All images were created by me from Canva and the content is mine and original.

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