Customs & Ceremonies-te

Customs and Ceremonies related to religion

The naming of a baby is a big event among Hindus, Muslims and Christians. The Hindus in some areas of the country give as many as three names to a child. The first represents the star under which the child was born (or sometimes the Surname of the family), the second is in honour of one of the elders in the family (or the Father’s name) and the third may be the one the child will actually be called by. Indian Christians, like their counterparts in the West, take the baby to the church for baptism at the hands of the priest or the minister.

In some communities of India, there are initiation ceremonies for the grown-up child. Elders or priests initiate the youngster into life, giving him guidance about how to conduct himself as a Hindu, Christian or Muslim as per their respective religious traditions.

Hindus, Muslims, Christians and Parsees may celebrate the birth or naming of a baby and the confirmation of the child in their faiths differently, but the ceremonies are only outwardly different. Their inner content is the same for all religions. AS Baba has said, “The ornaments may be different, but the gold is the same”.

Indians are known for their fondness for children. Indian adults delight in the company of children. They hug them and fondle them as Westerners seldom do. The physical contact between the children and adults, particularly their parents helps to strengthen the psychological and spiritual bonds between them.

The nest important happy occasion is the wedding in all Indian religions. The Hindu wedding is celebrated in front of the sacred fire, priests chanting the Mantras. The sacred fire is witness of the sacred bond between the bride and the bridegroom. Christian weddings take place in the church before the priest.

All Indians, irrespective of their religion, dress up their brides in bright colours. Although there is much merriment during a wedding and plenty of food to eat, the ceremony itself is a solemn one. The bride and the bridegroom declare in the presence of friends and relatives that they would remain one, no matter what calamity befalls them. For all Indians, the marriage of a man and a woman is the sacred union of two persons who agree to hare each other’s joys and sorrows for a life time. Besides their house-hold companionship, the wife and husband are comrades and co-pilgrims on the spiritual path and they have to strive together for spiritual advancement.

All Indian religions have elaborated funeral rites. Muslims and Christians bury their dead, but Hindus always cremate their dead. The Parsees have their own tower of silence to consign their dead. (The Parsees believe that the earth should not be polluted by dead bodies). The final funeral rite is same in all religions. The Hindus believe in re-incarnation which means that the dead person will be born again in some other form According to Hindu beliefs, birth and death repeat themselves in a cycle until we merge ourselves with God. The Muslims and Christians believe that all the dead will be resurrected on Doomsday or Judgement Day, and will be judged as per their deeds and will be rewarded or punished accordingly.

What we should stress about religious customs in India is that they are not just customs that people blindly follow. They have a meaning and a purpose. They are meant to ease the pain of life and to increase the joys in life; they are meant to guide us through life on the righteous path, which many of us find it difficult to understand.