If you would like to celebrate the arrival of a new baby with friends and family, but are looking for an alternative to a traditional christening, this is the book for you. Civil weddings have been popular for a long time, but you can now have a Civil Naming ceremony for your child, held either at your local registry office, or at any venue of your choice. As there is no legal requirement, you can hold the party at home, in your garden, or at any venue you like. You can host the event yourselves, or ask a registered celebrant to host the event. This book contains lots of ideas to make your civil naming ceremony memorable and unique to your family. There are ideas for poems, readings, music, themes, and special ideas for how to mark the occasion. Everyone can get involved; grandparents, siblings, and specially nominated adults who can act as guardians. There are readings suitable for all. This book includes: - How to plan the naming party and ceremony - Ideas for indoors and outdoors decor, plus simple decorations - Providing entertainment and fun for children and adults - 10 special event ideas for the day, such as star naming, planting a tree and filling a time capsule - Traditional and contemporary ideas for readings and poems with new, specifically commissioned poems that are particularly relevant to this special occasion - Ideas and recipes for delicious food and drink

Explains the origin, historical or religious significance, and practice of naming ceremonies in different cultures around the world.

When lives are dominated by hunger, what becomes of love? When assaulted by daily acts of violence and untimely death, what happens to trust? Set in the lands of Northeast Brazil, this is an account of the everyday experience of scarcity, sickness and death that centres on the lives of the women and children of a hillside "favela". Bringing her readers to the impoverished slopes above the modern plantation town of Bom Jesus de Mata, where she has worked on and off for 25 years, Nancy Scheper-Hughes follows three generations of shantytown women as they struggle to survive through hard work, cunning and triage. It is a story of class relations told at the most basic level of bodies, emotions, desires and needs. Most disturbing - and controversial - is her finding that mother love, as conventionally understood, is something of a bourgeois myth, a luxury for those who can reasonably expect, as these women cannot, that their infants will live.

Delve deep into the religious rites and ceremonies of the Osage Indians with this comprehensive study by Francis La Flesche. The book offers two versions of the child-naming rite, shedding light on Osage mythology and traditions. A significant contribution to the understanding of Native American culture.

Explains the origin, historical or religious significance, and practice of naming ceremonies in different cultures around the world.