Christening

CHRISTENING

 The wedding ceremony has strong roots in the pagan strata of Russian folklife. However, the influence of Christianity on this popular ritual was expressed only in some religious stylization.

 Apparently, this cannot be said about the Christening. Here pagan echoes were weaker, and it was dominated by the Orthodox church baptism.
    In general, the Russian Orthodoxy, in its popular expression, has tolerated pagan everyday elements of life; the official church also largely avoided antagonism. Christianity in the Russian North had not opposed itself to paganism, it adapted without vanity to the prevailing, existing folk culture, and they influenced each other. The church service has evolved with the influence of ancient dramatized folk customs.
    It would seem that the birth of a new person - one of the significant life events - should be accompanied by a ceremony like a wedding. But this rite either did not reach us or did not exist. A reason for a trivial treatment of the birth of a child may be pretty frequent births and high infant mortality. Women would give birth to 15-16 babies, but about one-third of children would die.

 You can, however, suggest something else: the beauty and usefulness of ritual depend on the aesthetic side of events. A man is born in pain; normal death is also associated with temporary pain. But people understand that physical suffering cannot be beautiful; instead, it is accompanied by hideous. A baby, just released from the maternal womb, looks unattractive. Also, the unattractive are dead, just succumbed to death. Only later, and even then, not for everyone, the face of the deceased becomes spiritual or its likeness. Ugliness means being devoid of the image. Every day, an ugly baby that just experienced the torment of birth changes aesthetically. It becomes more beautiful and attractive because of spirituality. By the time of the wedding, people reach the zenith, full acme, internal and external. Perhaps, that is why the Christening pales compared to the wedding ceremony ...

 Yet, it could be called a dramatized ritual, which operates in the presence of mother and baby and many others. Firstly, the "babushka," in other words, a midwife, who helps with labour, maybe a grandmother or a stranger. "Babushka" not only performs midwifery duties and helps a newborn baby make the first breath, but she also leads the whole ritual: ties the umbilical cord and pronounces the spells. The cries of a baby are the first sign of life. The louder the child screams, the more it is considered healthy. While the mother rests from childbirth, the baby is washed and swaddled. In the morning, all the neighbours bring goodies to the new mother.

 Church baptism was essential in the life of Russian peasants. According to popular belief, the devil administered the souls of unbaptized children. Often mother grieved the child's death, not because it was gone, but because the child died unbaptized. Godfather and godmother were required for the Christening. A godchild, as a rule, loved and revered them very much.

 Presently, the described ritual has disappeared almost everywhere. However, the domestic and vital need to celebrate children's birth will not go away and probably will remain until there is life. Proof of that is the walls of maternity hospitals covered with these, for example, inscriptions: "Hurray! I have a son Petya!" Dates and names are accompanied by names, sometimes not coinciding with those which will be put on the birth certificates. But blame not only the collateral damage of women's emancipation but also the low spiritual and moral level of the fathers...