Yes, that's right, a rice feeding ceremony!
So yesterday was interesting! We were able to go to an old Hindu temple for Momoksha's rice feeding ceremony. Momoksha is the baby of Durga, the cook, and Ranju, the laundry man. Momoksha is about 6 or 7 months old. Hindu's have this ceremony where they bless the baby and his family and this is where they set up objects that he will crawl to that will represent his life and they feed him his first rice. It's almost like a baby blessing in our religion. But before we got to all of that, we actually got to go inside the inner sanctum of the temple where the shrine of the god Krishna, I think, was. Not many people get to do that, and those that do either have to pay a lot of money to do so or have very influenctial friends. Which is what we had, a friend of Dr. Nuckolls was able to arrange it so that we could go in.
Once inside, we listened to a ceremony that I think had to do with the birthday of the god, so it was a longer ceremony than usual. We were also blessed by the temple priests.
When that was done, we headed outside to a pillar, that Dr. Nuckolls said that when you hug it, it's supposed to bless you with many pregnancies. That was interesting to participate in as well, as you have to hug the pillar, then they said that if you hold a wish in your hear when they bless you again, your wish will come true.
After the pillar hugging, we headed to the area where we could watch Momoksha's rice feeding ceremony. Now that was really cool! We all sat around as the temple priest went through the ritual, blessing Momoksha and his family, as well as Momoksha's future. When he was done with that, Sallaja, one of the servants that works for the house, set up a series of objects when Momoksha would crawl towards and pick. The first three that he picked would be what influenced his life. It was cool to see that he was actually looking at everything to see what they were before he chose them. The first three that he picked were money, a book and pen, and flowers. The money represents him going after money, or having money in his life. The book and pen represents knowledge, and the flowers represent the appreciation of beauty. So he did really well. And you could tell that everyone, even those just walking by, were really getting into the ceremony. When Momoksha chose the objects everyone was cheering. I think it scared him a little as he pouted when everyone started to cheer. But he's such a happy baby! And so cute!
We were also intereviewed by three journalists yesterday! Which was kind of cool. Well, not really interviewed, but we had our pictures taken and one of them showed up online. I hopefully will be able to get a hold of it so that you can see.
So yeah, that was my day! I hope that everything is going well with everyone else!
Talk to you soon,
Ashley
So yesterday was interesting! We were able to go to an old Hindu temple for Momoksha's rice feeding ceremony. Momoksha is the baby of Durga, the cook, and Ranju, the laundry man. Momoksha is about 6 or 7 months old. Hindu's have this ceremony where they bless the baby and his family and this is where they set up objects that he will crawl to that will represent his life and they feed him his first rice. It's almost like a baby blessing in our religion. But before we got to all of that, we actually got to go inside the inner sanctum of the temple where the shrine of the god Krishna, I think, was. Not many people get to do that, and those that do either have to pay a lot of money to do so or have very influenctial friends. Which is what we had, a friend of Dr. Nuckolls was able to arrange it so that we could go in.
Once inside, we listened to a ceremony that I think had to do with the birthday of the god, so it was a longer ceremony than usual. We were also blessed by the temple priests.
When that was done, we headed outside to a pillar, that Dr. Nuckolls said that when you hug it, it's supposed to bless you with many pregnancies. That was interesting to participate in as well, as you have to hug the pillar, then they said that if you hold a wish in your hear when they bless you again, your wish will come true.
After the pillar hugging, we headed to the area where we could watch Momoksha's rice feeding ceremony. Now that was really cool! We all sat around as the temple priest went through the ritual, blessing Momoksha and his family, as well as Momoksha's future. When he was done with that, Sallaja, one of the servants that works for the house, set up a series of objects when Momoksha would crawl towards and pick. The first three that he picked would be what influenced his life. It was cool to see that he was actually looking at everything to see what they were before he chose them. The first three that he picked were money, a book and pen, and flowers. The money represents him going after money, or having money in his life. The book and pen represents knowledge, and the flowers represent the appreciation of beauty. So he did really well. And you could tell that everyone, even those just walking by, were really getting into the ceremony. When Momoksha chose the objects everyone was cheering. I think it scared him a little as he pouted when everyone started to cheer. But he's such a happy baby! And so cute!
We were also intereviewed by three journalists yesterday! Which was kind of cool. Well, not really interviewed, but we had our pictures taken and one of them showed up online. I hopefully will be able to get a hold of it so that you can see.
So yeah, that was my day! I hope that everything is going well with everyone else!
Talk to you soon,
Ashley
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