Wind In My Head: One Month Gift
Wind In My Head
Tuesday, January 10, 2006
One Month Gift
The Chinese tradition in Singapore is that when an infant is one month old, there is great celebration. According to my mother who tells me long tales sometimes just to make me eat my vegetables, it's done to celebrate the infant clearing its first four weeks of life. And apparently, in the past, if an infant lived beyond the first four weeks, it was likely to live, meaning it wouldn't end up being an infant mortality statistic. Of course, now it's a party thrown so that the poor mother who has been cooped up for the entire month gets to see adults and have real adult conversations with them. Obviously, this is a skewed look at the reason for the celebrations and there are more logical reasons but I like the one above best.I don't remember much about what is given and being absent for the one month celebrations of my nephew and niece, there is even less to go by. But I do know that it usually comes in the form of a butter cake *make face at the thought of butter while Packrat makes hungry noises* and red eggs.
But no where in my memory was as cool a one-month old package as the one I received today. My best friend's baby has passed the crucial four week old mark without incident, unless one counts him crying his tiny eyes out all the way from Hougang's Central Mall back to his home in the northern sector of the country. Anyhow, she dropped this off for us today and I was stunned.
And it had little goodies inside, all very prettily packed.
Apparently it's an online store that does it and it's not cheap. But oh so pretty. It's like a wedding favour, except it's for baby celebrations. I want! Of course, traditional Packrat wants the red eggs with dye that stays permanently on your fingers. But I think the nicely wrapped chocolate eggs that come as part of the package is as good and yummier!
Ondine tossed this thought in at 23:26
