Baby Blessings and Adoptions
Ceremonies that celebrate your children are ones filled with great joy! They recognize the special responsibilities of a parent to their child, gather the support of family and friends, celebrate the child’s significance, and welcome the child into the extended family and the community. If the celebration is held to commemorate the adoption of an older child, the ceremony can also recognize the gifts the child brings to your family. Welcome your new child by holding a special blessing day in his or her honor!
Blending Families
Often incorporated into a wedding, a ceremony that touches on blending two families together allow children to feel honored and respected as they take on their new role as step-children. This is the perfect time to give the step-parent or co-parent to honor and clarify the new bonds, relationships, and responsibilities that are formed when two families wed. The Step-parents may want to make promises of commitment and support to their partner’s children while sharing their promises and love for any step-children.
Baby Namings
Whether you have a brit milah or simchat bat for your Jewish baby, a Wiccaning for your Pagan child, or a secular baby-naming ceremony for your little one, naming your baby brings to life his or her presence in your family and community. During the ceremony, you as parents state your love and commitment to your child and declare hopes for their future, while giving them a name that will honor this ceremony throughout their life.
(Please note that, in the case of a brit milah, I do not perform any boys’ bris. Please let me know if you need recommendations on a local mohel to hold this ceremony.)
Coming of Age
At some point – and possibly to many parents’ chagrin! – children become recognized as adults for the first time. Like other major life-chronicling ceremonies such as birth, marriage, and death, the Coming of Age ceremony honors the individual’s growing up within the family and their community, an entrance into a higher life of culture and spirit. Help your teenager highlight their new freedoms and new responsibilities that come with adulthood by honoring their growth.
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