The Baptism of the Moso

In general it is considered that there are three rites that shape the life of the persons in the society. The first one of them is the related one to his birth, and to his incorporation therefore to a society. The Moso celebrate this rite to which they call of "to choose a name" scarcely the child has been born. In the same day of the birth in case he is a male, or on the following day the case of that is a woman.

The ceremony usually directs it or a mud, or a priest Daba, since it is already known that the Moso practise two religions: the Lamaism that the Tibetan ones took them, and his called traditional religion was Giving, a type of shamanism that possibly also has received influences of the primitive religion of the Tibetan ones. That a representative of a religion directs it or of other one scarcely it will affect to the development of the ceremony, although as we will see then, due to the methods used to choose the name, this one will be different.

After the ceremony begins, the celebrant reads the writing along with the fire. The matriarch prepares a figure of the cooked rice that it places in the middle of a salver. In half of this figure there stick five pairs of toothpicks, which represent the mountains and the pines. Making a detour to the figure of rice there is placed on the salver an entire chicken, sausages, eggs and dry pork. Incense passes on the gifts and they present before themselves before the priest who is reading the writing, like a way of venerating the gods and ancestors. Then the matriarch or the grandmother of the child takes him in his arms and joining the palms of the hand to him presents him before the priest, who while it says one beats gently with the book in the head of the newborn baby. On having had just prayed, he says three times aloud the name chosen for the newborn baby and impregnates with little oil his head, wishing him through that a long and fortunate life lives.

Next the salver takes with the gifts before the elders, who successively will be taking three times the toothpicks simultaneously that say phrases auspiciosas for the child. This considers that it is a gift to the gods. Later it is necessary to realize the gift to the ancestors. For it the matriarch takes a little of the gifts in a bowl and presents it before the ancestors proclaiming the name of each of them. On having finished, incense passes on the gifts and they throw themselves to the roof of the house, so that the crows eat it. After realizing three times this activity one happens to venerate the gods of the fire, offering again on and down the stove departs from the gifts. In the end there is offered a drumstick, a piece of pig and a little of wine to the family of the biological father. What stays is distributed between all the assistants.

Since we see this part of the ceremony of the Moso it presents big resemblances with the baptism of the Christians. In both ceremonies we see a priest reading his sacred writing, before that there presents before himself the newborn baby, whom it names and the welcome to the world of the faithful ungi�ndole in the head with oil while it proclaims more auspiciosos his desires. In both cases after the ceremony purely religious there is celebrated a banquet, which between the Moso is almost symbolic.

But before this part was celebrated, the priest has prepared himself previously to see it forms them in that it chooses the name for the newborn baby. In this part the Chinese influence is clear, moving away completely from the common beliefs in Occident. To choose the name there is born in mind the sign of the zodiac to which the mother belongs, placing itself every sign in a frame that relates them to four points of the compass and four secondary ones.

This way, it is considered that the rat and the pig belong to the north, the dog to the northeast, the tiger and the rabbit to the east, the dragon to the southeast, the snake and the horse on the south, the goat to the south-west, the monkey and the rooster on the west and the cow to the northwest.

The only difference between that the ceremony is directed by a mud or by a Dapa, the fact is that the first one will place in every direction the name of one of four treasures of the Buddhism, that combining them with five elements (ground, wood, fire, metal and water) and the sex of the newborn baby will provide his definitive name to him.

In case it is one It was Giving, it will bear more in mind the hour to that born the child, and his relation with five elements to provide his name to him.

Once concluded this ceremony is considered to be that the child spends to be part of the community.

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