In Russia, there were many different traditions and rituals. Some of them have survived to this day. One of these traditions is to cut hair from the head of a one-year-old child.
As it turned out, such a tradition has no attachment to ancient customs, since earlier the haircut of children was exclusively an ordinary prevention of infections and lice.
Do babies need a haircut?
People who believe that a child must have the top of their head cut a year boldly declare:
- a haircut will help random passers-by and those around them to distinguish babies in accordance with gender characteristics, because often strangers admire the beautiful little eyes of a girl, to which parents hear in response that their child is a boy;
- if the baby's first birthday falls on a warm season, with long and thick hair it will be much more difficult for him to cope with the heat;
- sometimes long hair interferes with the baby himself: they climb into the eyes during games, and in general, in this way, they can harm his eyesight.
Indeed, a beautiful hairstyle has not harmed anyone yet, and therefore, if parents control their appearance, why not pay attention to the state of the baby?
All individually
The decision as to whether to cut the baby's hair per year or not, is still the parents themselves. It is also believed that a haircut can help a child's hair grow thick and lush. But this opinion has not been confirmed by science, and the key properties of the child's hair have nothing to do with the observance of all kinds of rituals. If the hairs interfere with the child, you can cut them not even exactly in a year, but at any other time. Take your child to the hairdresser. Girls can have a cascade haircut, which will not cost much, and boys are most often shaved bald.
Hair cutting ceremony for a one-year-old child
Today, tonsure is also endowed with a huge number of superstitions that have come down through the generations from pre-Christian Russia. Parents for the first "haircut" of the child must call the godmother and godfather, as well as all other guests whom they wish to see at the child's birthday.
During the celebration, a cover or some other piece of soft cloth is placed on the floor.
The next stage is the landing of the child. Sometimes it is very difficult for babies to calm down, so parents spend a lot of time and effort to attract his attention. The duty of the godfather is to cut off several strands from the baby's head, observing the sequence of his own movements in the shape of a cross, bandaging the cut hair with a thread and laying it in a paper, for example, envelope. Parents should keep these hairs until the child comes of age. Recently, by the way, another ceremony has been added to this action - various objects are laid out near the child after the tonsure: pens, money, books, etc. It is generally accepted that which object the baby chooses first, that one will determine his fate.
