Re: Rites of Passage

Hi Abbie!

You are so right to highlight the universal interest in the initial feedings of a young baby. With our little-one just out of the starting-gate with solid foods, my husband and I chose to skip the public display of eating at The Big Family Thanksgiving with forty guests, most of whom were meeting our son for the first time. Part of me felt guilty about this, like I was hoarding him for myself, but my concerns about him being overwhelmed by the crowd's enthusiasm won the day. We, I suspect like most Americans, chose to videotape our son's first bites to preserve the memory. That way, family and friends will be able to experience it without upsetting the intimacy of the moment for our nuclear family.

Like you, I do wish there were an established tradition in our culture that celebrated a baby's first non-milk meal with more than just Mom and Dad. When I spoke to my Taiwanese mother-in-law about this concept after reading your post, she said there is a tradition in Taiwan that sounds very similar to annaprasan, the ritual first feeding of an infant in the Indian tradition. A number of objects are laid out in front of a four-month-old baby, whose fate is supposedly determined by which article he grabs. She named scissors (a tailor), scales (a merchant), an abacus (a businessman), and a book/pen (an "intellectual"). I had a hard time with "scissors", but it was the first thing she named - and very enthusiastically. No other professions surfaced despite less-than-unbiased-professional prompting.

Another ritual that my mother-in-law had already observed for her own sons and my own was at their one-month birthday. She made yu-bung (oily rice with cabbage, mushroom, pork, scallions, etc.) and ang-nung (red hard-boiled eggs "like at easter") for the family and neighborhood - I think in celebration of a viable new life that was "out of the woods" so to speak, common in many cultures.

Finally, she mentioned tying a cord covered in bread, strung through a central hole ("like bagels") around a four-month-old baby's neck to ward off future problems with drooling. Afterward, the adults eat the delicious bread, drool and all. I have a hunch there are more interesting rituals to be discovered at a later time...

Back to your post - my guess is that you are correct in supposing that annaprasan is more of a ceremonial first than an actual one. This appeals to me in that it preserves the actual first-feeding for parents, but invites shared participation from the larger community in celebration of a baby's induction into the exciting, new world of eating. I am hoping we will stage just such an event when our families are next together later this season!

Love,
Marjorie