L17: Customs of Birth

Good morning, everyone! Come in and sit down. Great to see you all. Before we begin today, let me say that I read the susegad reflections from last week's assignment, and they were genuinely lovely. Some of you wrote very personally about what that word means to your family, and I appreciated that. That kind of personal engagement with heritage is exactly what this course is about. Quick recap. In Lectures 15 and 16, we explored the intangible heritage of Goa through its language — the Portuguese loanwords in Konkani, the Porkonkani mixing phenomenon, the idioms that carry social attitudes, the place names that record history. Today we take a step into a different but equally rich dimension of intangible heritage: life-cycle rituals. Specifically, the Customs of Birth. This is Lecture 17. I want to say at the outset: this is a topic where you should all feel that you have something to contribute. Every family in Goa has its own version of these practices. Hindu families, Catholic families, families from different talukas — they all do things somewhat differently. But underneath all the variation, there are structural patterns that reveal a great deal about Goan values, beliefs, and social organisation. Let us explore those patterns together. [0–10 minutes: Introduction] Birth is not a private event. In traditional Goan society — and to a significant extent in contemporary Goan society too — birth is a community event. The birth of a child involves not just the immediate family but the extended family, the neighbours, the village community, and invisible spiritual presences — gods, ancestors, protective spirits. The rituals surrounding birth are designed to manage all of these relationships simultaneously: to welcome the new life, to protect the mother and child from malevolent forces, to announce the child to the community, to integrate the child into the social and spiritual order. When I say 'customs of birth' I am talking about a whole calendar of rituals that begins even before the birth — during pregnancy — and extends through the first few months of the child's life. Different communities have different versions, different timings, different emphases. But the broad arc is similar across Hindu and Catholic Goan communities, which is itself telling — it suggests that many of these practices are rooted in pre-Christian, pre-Portuguese Goan cultural soil and have simply adapted to different religious frameworks. [10–40 minutes: Core Content] Let me take you through the main rituals in sequence, starting from pregnancy and moving through early infancy. During pregnancy, the most important ritual in traditional Goan Hindu practice is the seemantham or simant — the ritual parting of the hair. This is a pregnancy ritual that is widespread across South India and has specific Goan forms. The ceremony typically takes place in the fifth, seventh, or ninth month of pregnancy. The husband parts the hair of the pregnant wife in a ritual gesture of blessing and protection. There are offerings, prayers, the singing of auspicious songs. The ritual is simultaneously a protection against evil eye and a social announcement — it tells the community that a birth is imminent. In Goan Catholic communities, there is no exact equivalent ritual, but pregnant women traditionally make special visits to particular Marian shrines — Our Lady of Miracles at Mapusa is particularly associated with prayers for safe delivery. The Our Lady of Miracles festa at Mapusa is held in May and draws enormous crowds, many of them women praying for fertility and safe birth. This is a beautiful example of how the pre-Christian veneration of a protective female deity — the village mother goddess — was transferred onto a Christian figure. The okio ceremony — this is a pre-birth ritual in some Goan Hindu communities where close female relatives of the pregnant woman gather at her home, and there is a ceremonial meal, singing of songs called okio songs, and the adorning of the pregnant woman with flowers and jewellery. The okio is both a protective ritual — creating a circle of female protective energy around the mother — and a celebration. It is the Goan equivalent of a baby shower, but with deep spiritual dimensions. Now we come to the birth itself. In traditional Goan society, birth almost always took place at home, attended by the midwife — the soi — who was a specialist woman, often from a particular community, who had a hereditary or traditional role as the village midwife. The soi was not just a medical practitioner — she was a ritual specialist too. She knew the prayers, the protective gestures, the herbs and substances to be used during and after the birth. Her role was as much spiritual as physical. The moment of birth was the moment of maximum spiritual vulnerability. The mother and the newborn were believed to be in a state of ritual impurity — sutak or bhagvannem — for a period of days after the birth. This ritual impurity was not a judgment or a stigma — it was a recognition that birth is a liminal event, a crossing between the spiritual and physical worlds, and that the people involved in that crossing needed time and ritual attention to return to ordinary social life. During the sutak period — typically five, seven, or eleven days, varying by community and caste — the mother and child stayed in a designated room, often the innermost room of the house. Visitors were restricted. The mother rested, was fed special foods, was given oil massages. This post-partum period of rest and special care is both a spiritual practice and, we can now appreciate, excellent practical medical wisdom — the mother needs rest and nutrition, the newborn needs to be protected from infection, the bonding between mother and child is established in this quiet period. On the fifth day — Panchamichi — there is a ritual in many Goan Hindu families. The family deity is invoked, prayers are offered, and the child is formally presented to the household's spiritual life. In some communities, the goddess Shasti or Shashthi — the protector of children — receives special worship on this day. Shashthi is depicted riding a cat and is propitiated with sweets and rice preparations. In Catholic families, the equivalent event is the bringing of the child to the baptismal font, which in traditional Goan Catholic practice often happened within days or weeks of birth. The naming ceremony — namankaranam in Hindu practice, batismo or baptism in Catholic practice — is one of the most important milestone rituals. In Hindu Goan families, the namankaranam typically takes place on the twelfth day after birth. A pandit performs the ritual: the horoscope is cast, an auspicious name is chosen — often the name of a family deity or a name beginning with the letter determined by the birth nakshatra. The name is whispered into the child's ear by the father or a senior male relative. There is a ritual meal, the child is passed among relatives to be held and blessed. In Goan Catholic families, the baptism was — and is — a major social event. The godparents — padrinho and madrinha in Portuguese — are chosen with great care. In traditional Goan Catholic society, godparenthood was a serious social and spiritual commitment. The godfather in particular was expected to play an active role in the child's upbringing, to be responsible for the child's Catholic education, and to step in if the father was unable to fulfil his duties. Godparenthood created a network of ritual kinship that strengthened community bonds. The baptism feast — a proper Goan feast with sorpotel, ros omelette, bibinca — was a significant event in the village social calendar. The first outing of the child — the first time the baby was taken outside the home — was in many communities a ritually significant event. In Hindu families, this often involved a first visit to the family temple or the village deity shrine. In Catholic families, it was often tied to the first visit to the church after the baptism. Either way, the child was being formally introduced to the community's spiritual life. The cradle ceremony — pallankinn or pallanke — was another important milestone. The child's first laying in the cradle was marked with ritual. In Goan Hindu families, the wooden cradle — often a beautiful carved object, passed down through generations — was ceremonially prepared. Prayers were said, auspicious items were placed in or near the cradle. Lullabies were sung — the lullabies of Goa are a beautiful category of folk music in both Konkani and Portuguese. In Portuguese-speaking Catholic Goan families, the lullabies were often in Portuguese — 'dorme dorme menino' — sleep sleep little one — or in the mixed Porkonkani register we discussed last week. Finally, the tonsure — the first cutting of the hair — called mundan or chudakaranam — is a ritual in many Hindu Goan families, typically performed in the child's first or third year. The child's head is shaved in a ritual context, often at a temple, and the hair is offered to the deity. This ritual marks a transition — the child is no longer a newborn but a young child, entering a new phase of life. Let me also mention one specific Goan Catholic custom that is worth noting: the custom of the quinto. In some Salcete Catholic families, when a child is born into a communidade gaunkar family, the birth is recorded in the communidade register as part of the formal process of establishing the child's inheritance rights. The child is being registered not just in the baptismal records of the church but in the social and economic records of the village corporation. Birth, in this context, is simultaneously a spiritual, familial, and legal event. [40–55 minutes: Activity and Discussion] Alright, I want to hear from you. Let us do a quick oral sharing exercise. I want each of you to think of one birth ritual or custom from your own family or community — it can be Hindu, Catholic, Muslim, any tradition. It does not have to be on the list I just described. Maybe it is something your grandmother always did, or something your mother told you was done when you were born. Think for two minutes. [Allow thinking time] Good. Who wants to start? Sandra, what came to mind? [Allow student response] Fascinating — the ritual of placing a book and a pen next to the baby on the first night, as a wish for the child to be educated. That is not in the standard lists of rituals but it is clearly a meaningful family custom. And notice — a book and a pen. That is a modern adaptation of an older custom — in older times, it might have been a Vedic text or a rosary placed near the child. The form changes but the impulse — to consecrate the child's future through symbolic objects — remains. So let me ask you this: these birth customs — the sutak period of rest, the naming ceremony, the godparenthood network — which of these do you think still function in contemporary Goan life, and which have faded? And does the fading of these rituals represent a loss of cultural heritage, or simply a natural adaptation to modern life? [Allow discussion] This is exactly the right tension to sit with. Heritage is not a museum. It is a living thing. But living things can also die. The challenge for your generation is to decide which practices carry meaning worth preserving and which can be let go without loss. [55–60 minutes: Summary and Assignment] Let me close. Today we examined the Customs of Birth in Goan society — from the pregnancy rituals like the simant and the okio, through the birth and the sutak period of ritual seclusion, to the naming ceremony, the baptism, the cradle ritual, and the first tonsure. We saw these practices in both Hindu and Catholic communities and noted the deep structural similarities that point to their shared pre-Christian, pre-Portuguese roots. We also saw how specific practices — like godparenthood and the recording of birth in communidade registers — reflect the Portuguese-era institutional framework. Your assignment: interview the oldest female member of your family — grandmother, great-aunt, whoever is available — and ask them to describe one specific birth ritual from when they were young that is no longer practised today. Write a one-paragraph description and bring it to class. We will compile a class archive of disappearing Goan birth customs. Next lecture — Lecture 18 — we turn to the other end of the life cycle: the Customs of Death. If you thought birth rituals were rich, just wait. Goan death customs are extraordinarily layered, deeply moving, and full of historical significance. See you then.