Hello everyone,
Wishing you a very Happy Easter that is filled with plenty of love and happiness.
M and Chhori
Posted in Holidays
Tagged australian, australian nepali, chhori, easter, easter 2015, Happy Easter, Nepali
I know I am posting this late because Chhori is already a month now.
Nwaran was performed when she was 11 days old.
Nwaran ceremony is also known as Machabu Byakegu in Newari. This ceremony is performed to give a birth name to a child according to his/her lunar horoscope; this is usually not the name by which he/she will be known. This ceremony is normally small and celebrated amongst close family.
Typically, a priest is invited to perform the ceremony at home, and divines the child’s lunar horoscope from his birth details, as the mother is still recovering at home with the child. Until the mother and child are ‘purified’ (from past birth etc. in the religious sense), they should not visit the temple.
For the occasion, I wore a red sari which was specially brought from Nepal by my mum for the occasion. It was a cotton sari which is what new mums are supposed to wear for the occasion.
As soon as Chhori was born, we booked a priest for the ceremony and he gave us a list of things that are required for the day and everything was ready when he arrived at my place at 8.30 am on the day of the ceremony.
The main ceremony was conducted in the balcony of our apartment. Before the priest arrived we had cleaned and mopped the place. So, when he arrived, he started making a Mandap on the balcony. Once it was ready he asked AS to come and join him for the Puja.
He had all his books of mantras and it took more than an hour for the first phase of the Puja to finish. It involved lots of mantra reciting from the books and lots of different Pujas to God, with candles on the Mandap.
Then he asked me and Chhori to join the Puja. He chanted more mantras from the book. Then he asked me to perform Puja to the sun. Then he put tika on Chhori’s forehead and gave him a piece of paper which had details required to make her Jaata (lunar horoscope chart).
Then my SIL took Chhori for Surya Darshan, i.e. to let the sunray fall on her as a blessing. Then the priest put Tika on AS, me and rest of the family. He also put Janai (holy string) around our wrists.
After the ceremony, the priest left and the family function started. My parents, with the help of my brother and SIL, had prepared lots of trays of gifts for us and Chhori. It included sari and other gifts for me, clothes for AS and lots of clothes, toys, and manchester for Chhori as well as trays of sweets and fruits.
The special thing required was special sliver bowl and spoon which my mum has got from Nepal.
My parents put tika for AS, me and Chhori and gave us blessing and gifts. It was really nice and special to have all my family here for the occasion.
Till next post take care everyone,
M from nepaliaustralian
XOXO
Posted in Nepali Culture, Newari Culture, Our daughter, Personal
Tagged Annaprashan, baptism ceremony, Chhaithi, chhori, dubo ko mala, golden threads, junko, Macha Junko, machabu-byakegu, motherhood, nepali kalli, Nwaran, Nwaran and Pasni, Nwaran ceremony, Pasni, silver anklets (kalli), silver ornaments, Thaa Bu, Weaning Ceremony
First of all thank you everyone for lovely message and sorry for not posting as frequently as before but as you can imagine I am too busy feeding, changing nappies and looking after Chhori that there is no time for anything else. If there is any spare time, I would love to sleep but sleeping for long periods of time seems like a distant dream right now.
As you all know there are lots of rituals in Hindu culture when one has a baby. Now with Chhori, we want to follow all the rituals as well even though we are not in Nepal. The first ritual we performed is called Chhaithi.
Chhaithi ceremony is performed when the baby is six days old and takes place late in the evening.
For Chhaithi, the fufu (baby’s dad’s sister, or the baby’s paternal aunt) will need to bring some koseli (gifts for the baby) which includes fruits and sweet along with a new pair of clothes for the baby. She will also bring a notebook and a pen.
In our case, as AS doesn’t have any sister here, the ceremony was performed by my SIL.
So to start the Chhaithi, my SIL sat with Chhori surrounded by 12 tea light candles (traditionally we use oil lamps) and one more candle was lighted for god.
According to tradition, there is a belief that on the 6th day after the birth of the child, Vidhaata (Goddess of destiny) would quietly enter the house around midnight to pen the destiny of the newborn. Traditionally the mother of the newborn lights a lamp and this lamp along with a pen and paper given by fufu are placed on a wooden plank for Vidhaata to write the future of the newborn.
After my SIL finished performing the ritual, everyone else in the family performed the rituals by giving Chhori money and gifts. Then I gave my SIL gifts and she gave the baby back to me.
After the ceremony when the Chhori went back to sleep, we placed the notebook and pen next to the bassinet along with one of the candles.
I prayed to the Goddess that she be given a bright future with a healthy life.
This concludes the first of many rituals my Chhori will have in her life.
Till next post take care everyone,
M from nepaliaustralian
XOXO
Posted in Nepali Culture, Newari Culture, Our daughter
Tagged Chhaithi, chhori, motherhood, Nwaran, Nwaran and Pasni, Pasni
After writing so much about my pregnancy, sorry I disappeared. As many of you might have guessed, I was a bit busy lately.
It is AS and my absolute pleasure to introduce our beautiful daughter, Little M. Our lives have been enriched by the arrival of our beautiful girl and I look forward to sharing many more posts with you in the coming weeks, months, years.
In this blog, I will refer her as Chhori from now on which means daughter in Nepali language.
Chhori was born on Friday 20 February, 2 weeks before her due date. She came in her own way, on her own time, and turned our lives over in the meantime.
Like every mother I am biased but I think she is an absolute stunner and we feel truly blessed to have her in our life.
Adjusting to our new life has not been easy but I am so glad to have my lovely husband and amazing mum to help me with Chhori. I know we are only 12 days in but I am loving every minute of motherhood and I know there will be a lot more to in the future. AS and I are truly struggling to find the words to describe how life has changed for us. No matter how prepared you try to be, you can’t really understand how it will feel, what will change, what you will accept and what you will struggle with; until you hold your baby in your arms. And even then, we are still at a loss for words.
We have had busy days since her birth, with lots of visitors and she has been spoiled by friends and family.
I will try my best to blog whenever I can or I should say when my new boss allow me some spare time. Till then,
Take care,
M from nepaliaustralian
XOXO
Posted in Celebrations, Our daughter, Personal
Tagged absolute pleasure, baby, beautiful daughter, beautiful girl, chhori, daughter, my daughter, we had a baby
nepaliaustralian 