Rituals related to celebrate children's growth in Chinese society

There are many rituals about celebrating children's growth in Chinese society, and
these rituals are usually practiced during a child's baby stage. I will shed light on this
set of rituals related to children birthdays in the following paragraphs.

The fundamental belief underlying making a set of rituals to celebrate children's birth
is to continue life, success, and prosperity, reflecting parents' deep love for their
children.

There are different birthday celebration rituals and ceremonies for babies. For
instance, most well-known for people are full moon party or first 100 days celebration.
People will invite relatives and friends to join the party to welcome a new child coming
to their families. These are the most prevalent practices while I would like to focus
more on my coming introduce ritual, and it is named "one-year-old-catch." On a baby
one-year-old birthday, parents will put many items on the ground for the child to catch
them. Traditionally, commonly used objects are pens, ink, paper, inkstone, abacus,
coins, books. The whole process is all following child's own will, and it must not involve
parents any interruption about their choice of choosing which items. According to
what the baby catch, the family can predict the baby's interest and future career. A
few examples and their meaning of different objects, color pencils refer to drawers or
artists; a dictionary refers to scholars or scientists; seals refer to authority or officials.
If a child catches food like orange, it means you will be fortunate in your future life.
They are just symbolic meanings that contain parents' goodwill on them.

Outsiders of Chinese society may not understand the meaning of having rituals like
"one-year-old-catch" as ordinary people will not believe in what a one-year old child
catch will determine their personality and future career. It is more like a random
choice for the child, and it should not consist of so many meanings. The outsiders may
also wonder whether the parents will nurture their children to become experts in the
fields that according to the chosen objects. The answer will be yes in the past. Back in
ancient time, the parents believed that their children got talents on those objects they
have chosen, and that is why they will choose them. It sounds super weird to outsiders,
but this is normal for traditional Chinese families.

However, the strange points can also be understood somehow. As stated in the
beginning, the fundamental belief reflects the deep love of parents for their children.
Although it is definitely superstition by depending on a person's future career path by
letting the child choose a random object. The rationale behind is, in fact, also letting
the child choose their future by themselves. There are similar practices or beliefs in
western countries. Although they do not use "one-year-old-catch" as an occupational
prediction for the future, they also emphasize developing their children's interest at
an early age. For example, if their kids like to draw and paint, parents will support their
development by enrolling their children in painting classes. In this respect, they hold
similar ideas as "one-year-old-catch" except that European and American countries
will pay more attention to interest cultivation and guidance.

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