O-Mia-Mairi

The Shinto equivalent to a baptism is called the Omiyamairi (お宮参り). There you take your newly born child, typically 1 month after birth but up to 5 months after is ok, to a local shrine to be presented to the Gods. It's an interesting ceremony with the Shinto priest chanting in a very hard to understand dialect of Japanese and blessing using bells, branches and paper. The chant includes important information such as the baby's name, birth date, the names of the baby's parents and, most important, the baby's address... so the Gods know where to find the baby to bless him or her with their good luck. Being the father I had to give an offering of a Tamagushi, a branch from a sakaki tree with white Japanese paper tied to it. My mom, being the baby's grandmother on the father's side had the honor of holding little Mia while the rites were being performed. Being a foreigner in Japan, it was great that the shrine we had chosen was very happy to see us. My mother, brother and sister in from America had a wonderful time experiencing this bit of Japanese culture first hand. The shrine we chose was Koshikiiwa Jinja located next to my first residence here in Japan and also the shrine we typically go to on New Year's Day besides being the shrine where many of our friends had gotten their Omiyamairi performed. The entire event took about 1 hour, although we made it longer by taking photos. It cost ¥5,000 to ¥15,000 depending on what you recieve from the shrine. We chose the middle level plan and got a set of bowls for Mia's first dinner ceremony, rice for that ceremony, a small charm, a drum toy, a special bigger charm and holder for it to be hung on the wall in the house.