If you are pregnant, you are probably very well acquainted with the ins and outs of a baby shower. There may even be a baby shower planned for you. Baby showers are a wonderful way to connect with friends and family before your baby arrives. They are also a great way for your friends and family to help you to prepare yourself and your home for life with a new baby.
Whether you are having a baby shower or not, you may want to talk to your friends and family about having another type of celebration, too. A blessingway is a celebration that helps a pregnant woman to prepare herself spiritually for the birth of her baby. It can be a stand – alone event, or some of the elements of a blessingway can be incorporated into a baby shower as activities. For example, at my baby shower, each of the guests brought a bead with them and at the party, I strung each bead onto a necklace as the person who was giving me the bead expressed her hopes and wishes for the new baby. The guests also passed around a guest book, in which they wrote encouraging thoughts for me to look through in the days and weeks to come.
It is thought that the blessingway originated in Navajo tradition as a type of celebration that was held not only for pregnant women, but for other individuals who were about to embark on vision quests or other major spiritual undertakings. The general idea is to gather people together to offer support and encouragement for the person that is the subject of the celebration. Sharing thoughts and ideas is often a large part of the celebration. Some celebrations even involve making a belly cast or belly painting, foot massages, or other types of special pampering for the mother to be.
Photo by cesstrelle on morguefile.com.