Bizarre Baby Rituals

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Bizarre Baby Rituals

Wednesday, May 28, 2008

Parents all over the world want what's best for their children--they just have different ways of showing it.

It doesn't matter where you live: Paris, Bombay or a tiny, remote island off the coast of Bali. All parents want to keep their kids safe healthy and happy. In America, one of the ways we protect our babies is by placing them in special reinforced seats when driving in a car.

In India, they toss them off buildings.

Yes, for the past 500 years in a small Indian village, they've been hurling tiny babies from a 50-foot temple--caught below in a sheet. All in the name of good luck. Guess their good luck starts the second they hit the tautly held fabric.

In Russia, as a way of insuring hearty children, a ritual at a popular daycare involves pouring freezing water on tots while they run around in their underwear.

And in Spain, every May 25th since 1620, the Baby-Jumping Colacho Festival features men dressed as Satan who jump over rows of infants (like an Olympic hurdler) to keep the devil away from the babes.

Throwing babies, hurdling infants and dousing kids with freezing cold water?! In America, these rituals could only mean one word: Lawsuit.

What do you think? Are these people crazy or just crazy about babies?

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OMG if anyone ever dropped my baby off a building I’d die. Where are the mothers????

- momathome

Posted 05/28/08 04:58 PM

is it really that much crazier than circumcision?

- danielle

Posted 05/28/08 05:16 PM

I’m just glad I don’t live in those places!

- Melanie

Posted 05/29/08 01:48 PM

None of that is as whacky as the USA. Shortly after the male infant is born he is straped naked onto a board, he is restrained, his penis is then stroked to erection then the foreskin is peeled back, crushed and then cut off. Some parents admit to doing it because they like the looks of it. Others some how believe that an open surgical wound in a babies diaper is the path to “better hygyne.

- anon

Posted 05/29/08 10:19 PM

I realize these countries have done these for a LONG time but I could NEVER throw my baby off a building. Even though it doesn’t look as though the babies are harmed, it crushes my heart to see an infant get tossed off a building

- Nicole

Posted 06/05/08 11:38 PM

Yep, just as bizarre as circumcision, except that throwing your kid off of a building hasn’t been linked to dramatically lowering the rate of AIDS and penile cancer. Nor is it practiced by over a quarter of the world’s population like circumcision is.

- JoAnne Gaudynski

Posted 06/16/08 07:03 PM

I don’t think you fully comprehend what goes on during circumcision, it is not an open surgical wound, it’s closed off by a small ring. By the by babies don’t develop nerve endings in that area until later on.

- Lulu

Posted 08/17/08 12:05 AM

I have one son who is circumsized, and two who are not, obviously it was my first I had it done to, I was young and thought it was the thing to do. I am glad the other two didn’t go through that, but to tell you the truth. I was outside the room, and my son didn’t cry at all during the procedure, he only cried when he heard my voice, and he was 12 days old. So yes, he knew he was away from momma, but he wasn’t in any pain. No problems after either. So I guess it is the parents choice either way. Alot of men prefer to be, still in this day and age, so it would be better to have it done in infancy then adulthood, but of course, how are we to know what the child will want when he is older… Debates Debates

- Robin

Posted 08/17/08 12:17 AM

Here is a simple test: If it is part of your body, it belongs to you. If it is not part of your body, IT DOES NOT BELONG TO YOU AND YOU HAVE NO RIGHT TO MUTILATE IT! mgmbill.org

- Eric

Posted 10/23/08 05:43 AM

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