Celebration and Prayer during the childhood – 七五三Shichi-Go-San, 初参りFirst Worship and other

Celebration and Prayer

Japanese tend to make a prayer of Buddhist temples or Shinto shrines at several occasions as the passage rites from the birth to the end of life. Japanese traditional rites of passage describing in this article have relation with the Japanese frame of mind rooted in Buddhism and Shinto. As these two religions had been supported by the emperor’s and aristocracy’s family, passage rites mentioned here have pervaded, as the time passed, from high society to Samurai society and to ordinary people with changing those style and manners.

At Birth

While there are many kinds of styles of celebrating the birth of child in the world, we Japanese have following celebrational rites which have been inherited throughout the ages.

(1) “Anzan-Kigan 安産祈願” ; Praying for safe delivery

Before the birth, delivering is a hard task for women. It carries a risk while they get hope and anxiety at the same time. The couples go to the temple or shrine for praying for easy delivery and safety of mother and her coming baby, where they receive the charm for it. Expectant mother carries the charms blessing them to be safe and easy delivery.

(2) “Hatu-mairi 初参り” ; First worship on the thirtieth-day after the birth

The first visit of worship is recommended to be made on the thirty-first-day for boy and thirty-second-day for girl, but not a must. To make it comfortable for parents and relatives, it is quite common to be held on the convenient time around one month after the birth. The ritual of the first visit of worship is considered to have started in Kamakura Era (in 12^th to 13^th century) and it was very natural for people when the survival rate was low to express their profound sense of gratitude for baby’s birth and to invoke their healthy growth. When you go to Buddhist temples or Shinto shrines, you may happen to see the scene of the baby’s first visit prayer taken by parents and grandparents, and those babies are wearing the Japanese traditional attire, white swaddle cloth and congratulatory kimono jacket.

(3) First Meal “Okui-zomeお食い初め”– on the one-hundredth-day

It is said that new born baby start cutting their tooth during the period between three-month and nine-month. We Japanese have a custom that on and around one-hundredth day parents and relatives hold the congratulant rite namely “お食い初めOkui-zome (“O-kui” means eating and “Zome” means the first)”, to let the baby act to eat and pray for baby’s health, happy prosperous growth and not to be in trouble for eating in the future. Its origin can trace back to the prayer ritual in Heian Era ( 9^th to 12th century) that aristocracy family had held at Buddhist temple or Shinto shrine, and nowadays it is common to be held as family party at home or restaurant.

There, “祝膳Iwai-Zen(Congratulant Plate) ” is served with the sea red bream and “歯固石Ha-gatame-ishi (small stone rigidizing teeth) . The former is considered to bring a long life and happy future for the baby because of its lucky color with red and longevity of twenty-years life and the latter is used for the rite of the first imitated eat, parent letting the baby imitate to eat the stone hoping its teeth to be sturdy.  

First Birthday Celebration

Any parents wish their children to grow healthy. In the age of low-birth rate and high death rate of children, growing to the one-year-old was not usual and it brought great happiness to parents as well as family. I imagine that the celebration rite for the first birthday has been held for long time in many families at home and recently at sometimes restaurants. The origin of the ritual is not clear but there is a certain ordinance

The procedure many Japanese modern families following is ;

(a) One-Sho Mochi (1升餅; about 1.5kg sticky rice cake) is prepared.

*升(sho) is a unit of weight, been used in the past. 1-sho is about 1.5 kg

*升 pronounces “sho”, same as “生” meaning “life”

(b) One-year-old child totes 1-升sicky rice cake and walk with an assistance of parents while parents and relatives pray and wish the child’s healthy growth without hardship in their life as well as having the ability to overcome the burdens of life. I think this may be a kind of side entertainment of the party but hoping their child to be happy and healthy is true feeling of everybody.

七五三(shichi;7- go;5-san;3) ; Celebration at seven-year-old, five-year-old, three-year-old

*Those year-counting system is base on Kazoe-doshi(Japanese old year-counting system), which is about one-year younger from the ordinary system)

15^th of November is the day of Shichi-go-san, the celebrational day having ritual prayer for children at seven-year-old girls, five-year-old boys and three-year-old girls and boys.  On or around 15^th of November you may be a witness of the children at Shinto shrines or Buddhist temples wearing Japanese traditional kimono taken by their parents and grandparents, where they pray for children’s healthy growth and prosperous future.

十三参り(Jyusan-Mairi);– Worship of Buddhist temple at 13-year-old

Those who are at the age of thirteen of Kazoedoshi* go to Buddhist temples to make a prayer on or around 13^th of March of the old calendar system(lunar calendar), thanking 虚空蔵菩薩(Akasagarbha Boddhisattva) which is said to be a Budda of wisdom, and praying for having intelligence to get through the life as an adult. Thirteenth is the first year after the twelve-years Oriental Zodiac turned around meaning to be in the next step of the total life as an adult.

This custom has not been popular in the whole of Japan except in Kansai area and recently prevailing to Tokyo and other cities.

Summary

H2) SummaryWe Japanese have customs of having rite of passage at some specific ages, especially younger ages, then we thank their lives until that age with praying for the future safe and happiness followed by the manner of Buddhism or Shinto. In this post, I’ve explained ritual rites at younger ages segment.