ANNAPRASHAN ( Rice tasting ceremony)

by - 8/19/2014

A man was born free but everywhere he was in chains. What does this line mean? I had come across this statement when I was a kid while studying English literature. That time I did not understand it quite much, It was simply a quotation for me. As I grew and matured gradually, I began to realize the gravity of this sentence.

With every passing year and generation, we are becoming more and more open minded. Things like religion and rituals have taken a backseat. In Hinduism there is no such thing like baptism i.e there is no ceremony or ritual that marks the staring of Hinduism. Born to Hindu parents, we become Hindus by birth. India being the land of thousands of communities, there are myriads of rituals followed everyday and everywhere. Being brought up in a very broad minded family, I am not used to following rituals blindly; although I know a lot of them. However in some cases, it feels nice to follow some customs even if we feel there is no scientific basis to it.

A baby is supposed to drink milk exclusively till 4 or 5 months. After that baby is introduced to other foods. In our community, this transition is celebrated with great pomp and show. We call it ANNAPRASHAN which is the first rice tasting ceremony.
 Anna means Cereal. In our case, Annaprashan is celebrated at 5th or 7th month for girls and at 6th month for boys. There is also a hitch: this ceremony has to be done before start of teething of the baby. As my daughter is around 4 and half months old, our parents as well as her paediatrician felt the need to introduce her to solid food. hence we organised Annaprashan to mark her first rice tasting.
 Being a doctor myself and my husband;we could have easily ditched this ceremony and fed her rice right away. But sometimes it feels good to stick to rituals and embrace customs. Both of our families were involved and it was sort of a family reunion which brought so much happiness to all!!

The first morsel of rice is fed by the maternal uncle of the baby. Since I am the only child, I donot have any brother of my own. However, my cousins are very loving. Especially one of my maternal aunt's son, Iman as he is lovingly known is more than a real brother to me. He is just three years older to me but has always pampered me like a kid. I always used to look upto him as the IITian engineer who earns a lot and spoils his sister with expensive gifts!!
Anyways, my daughter was fortunate that she got fed by my beloved and brilliant Iman dada!!



all set for the puja ceremony. My busy doctor hubby cannot stay away from calls even during the puja!! It was my scolding that he kept his phone down and posed for the pic!!


The Puja items...
our baby is getting impatient from sitting on her dad's lap for so long!!


she is throwing herself in a fit when her uncle tries to feed her!!


finally calm enough to taste her first rice pudding!!


all done with the ceremony, time for a saree moment!!




 Her lunch spread in silverware. though she can eat now, but that does not mean she can survive without cerelac and nan pro!!


with her both set of grandparents.

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9 comments

  1. sweet post!
    www.mrsnoone.it
    kiss

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  2. I love the blog work for this! I'm in Italy and we have two different cultures! With this post you share with all of us thia amazinf event!

    Marianna,
    THE ADVENTURES OF A SHOPAHOLIC
    THE ADVENTURES OF A SHOPAHOLIC ON FACEBOOK

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  3. lovely blogpost, it's always nice to learn something new about other cultures :) the pictures are perfect and you daughter is so cute :)

    myvintagephotography.blogspot.de/2014/08/african-vibe.html

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  4. I am so fascinated with your traditions!

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  5. What a precious baby and memoir for your future well done.
    http://tifi11.blogspot.com

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  6. beautiful blog! maybe we can follow each other on blogspot, bloglovin and lookbook?

    Let me know, dear!

    welcome :)

    http://anngrigorieva.blogspot.com

    http://anngrigorieva.blogspot.com

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  7. Many congratulations to the family. Beautiful family pictures.

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  8. Lovely pictures...nicely pictured the important function of your baby. Btw I dint know you have such a beautiful daughter too.

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