A Chinese Baby’s First Birthday

The Chinese understand gratitude. After eons of the masses grinding for a daily bowl of rice, they know counting clouds is a waste of time, and counting blessings the only way to keep going. In the West, baby’s first birthday is a cause for kitsch and consternation. Shots of junior staring confusedly at his cake are endearing, but soon he’ll be mobile enough to stand in front of the TV, and pull things off tables.

In China, parents hold their breath for their child’s first year of life. After all, precious gifts are so easily snatched away by jealous spirits. Thus the three ceremonies of baby’s zhou sui, not so much an anniversary of birth as a milestone in family continuity.

Cai Shou- Long Life

This ceremony is largely maintained in Fujian and Taiwan. As the child’s first birthday approaches, the family must prepare fruit and animal offerings, including the all-important jiao ta turtle. The gifts are placed before the ancestors, ensconced in a shrine, while parents beseech them to grant their pride and joy a long peaceful life.

Turtles can slime up a shrine something fierce, but they do represent long life, so the Chinese have struck a pragmatic compromise. Hong gui gao, red turtle cakes, play a symbolic role, since apparently once in the afterworld, older generations communicate even more indirectly.

The cakes make the next part of the ceremony much more sanitary as well. After praying in front of the answers, mom holds her child to step on the jiao ta turtle; jiao ta does mean “step on”, after all. Cai,or “long and wonderful”, also means “step” when written with another character.

What ancestor can refuse such semantic wizardry? Step on long-lived turtle cake, have a long and happy life. It’s fairly straight forward fetishistic cause and effect. And hey, at least no one’s getting thrown in a volcano or anything. Mom also touches the kid’s lips with some red turtle cake, saying as she does so, “Sickness won’t go into this mouth, and disaster won’t come out.” Yea, the mouth of the righteous is a well of life.

Duo Pan Jiao Si – Chopping the Thread That Trips

King of heaven, toddlers are clumsy. Motor development nothing; the baby’s ties to its mother keep it dependent and prone to stumbling. It needs freedom from the apron strings. Those who find this notion extra-hard to swallow will find agreement with the millions of Chinese who have long since abandoned this ceremony, yet it still persists in rural areas. The mother will hold her baby up so that it is standing, barefoot. An older woman with grown children crouches before them, wielding a chopping knife. “Thunk” goes the knife between baby’s feet. “What’s that for?” the mother asks. “Duo pan jiao si,” replies the older woman. Six more times the stroke, the query, the response. Seven times and the metaphysical chord is cut, leaving baby with the strength and dexterity to go wherever his puffy little legs may take him.

Zhua Zhou – Baby Test

If the turtle cakes gave baby a taste of long life, zhua zhou gives him a taste of what to expect in the short-term, plenty of high-stakes testing. This birthday ceremony is perhaps three thousand years old, still wildly popular in China, and little wonder. What parent or grandparent can resist an HR aptitude test that combines total randomness with life-long consequences?

Before the ceremony, of course, the ancestors get some more worship, then a table is set up in the middle of the room. Meaningful objects such as books, scissors, fabrics, and seals are placed in a big basket on the table. Actually, such objects were meaningful in the old days. Books meant a life of scholarship. Seals were for future officials. Scissors meant a life as a tailor. But if the kid grabbed fabric, the parents had a loafer on their hands.

Today parents place toy microphones, stethoscopes, computers, and cars in the basket, along with other objects reflecting more up-to-date careers. It’s all in fun, theoretically, but there’s no discounting entirely Buddhist tradition. Baby is no blank slate; he bears the cosmic wisdom of a thousand lifetimes in his DNA. Also, his choice won’t be influenced by an over-developed ego. Even if the parents hold little store by such metaphysics, there’s still quite a bit of enthusiasm in this ceremony, equal parts gambling and family drama.

Whoever comes to the birthday party brings a gift. The maternal grandmother, or wai po, is expected to bring a significant gift. Traditionally, she not only brought clothes, but the all important yao lan and jia yi chair. The former a bamboo cradle, and the latter a baby carrier, both were critical in the absence of SUVs for transporting tots out to the fields where mama did her agricultural duty.

Ceremonies completed, the guests are feasted, but not at the extravagant level of a wedding ceremony. If the revelers are disappointed at the lack of drinking bouts, at least they walk away with an armful of dyed red eggs and colored thread, auspicious gifts from the host to thank them for coming. Thank goodness that with friends, gratitude can be expressed symbolically, rather than with cold hard cash.

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1. A Chinese Christmas Story
2. Ten Chinese Heroes for 2008
3. Chinese Characters and Your Kid’s IQ
4. Surviving the Chinese Wedding
5. The Sound and the Fury: What NOT to Give Your Chinese Friends

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