Seemantham and Valaikappu are two rituals that are performed in most of the south Indian families for the pregnant woman and the child present in the mother's womb.
Here I am sharing My experience regarding the ceremonies. Pardon me if any of the details are incorrect and do leave a comment regarding the same. Each family may practice the rituals in a different way.
We believe that the fetus can hear the sound and feel the vibrations from the fifth month of pregnancy. Therefore all these ceremonies involve chanting of mantras by vedic learned brahmanas. The rituals involves three parts - udhayashanthi, seemantham and valaikappu.
In udhayashanthi, there were around 7/8 brahmanas who chanted soft yet powerful mantras for about an hour and half. I remember getting goosebumps from their sharp voice yet soft mantras. They had kept a pot of water mixed with some herbs in between them during the mantra chanting ceremony. Once finished, they asked my husband to pour the water from the pot onto me.
Valaikappu is the bangle ceremony. The pregnant woman is adorned with 20 bangles in left hand and 21 bangles in the right hand. In our family, the mother is the only one who is allowed to arrange the bangles in the pregnant woman's hands. There are 4 kinds of bangles - vepillai kaapu (bangle made out of tender neem twigs), thanga kaapu (bangle made of thin gold strands), velli kaapu (bangle made out of thin silver strands) and the glass bangles. My mom arranged the bangles in the above order. I still can remember her serious face while she was trying to arrange the bangles in my hand. She was nervous and was praying god that the delivery should go on well. Then the bangles were arranged for the maru-manai. The bangles were then given to other women who attended the ceremony.
In seemantham, there was what is known in tamil as aala moghu/aththi moghu and a porcupine quill. Aala moghu and aththi moghu were ground to a paste and little juice was taken and put in through my nostrils - just a single drop in each nostril. I believe there were more mantras - dont remember exactly what happened.
Then there was poo-chootal - All the ladies of the house were requested to place a tiny strand of flowers in my plaited hair.
Oh, one more thing to add here is that every single lady attending the ritual gave the blessing that I should bear a boy baby. In India boys are considered to be better than the girls as they are the ones who would carry on the family name. There was just one person who gave me the blessing to bear a healthy baby - she did not mention the sex of the baby - her exact words were - 'I will pray God to give you a healthy baby'. She was the maru manai - and my Husband's cousin. I can never ever forget those words. And If Achchu is reading this blog, I would request her/him to Remember to Always Thank his/her aththai for her blessings. :)
I will update this post if i remember more details on these ceremonies. :)
Do you leave your comments below..
Thanks!
Here I am sharing My experience regarding the ceremonies. Pardon me if any of the details are incorrect and do leave a comment regarding the same. Each family may practice the rituals in a different way.
We believe that the fetus can hear the sound and feel the vibrations from the fifth month of pregnancy. Therefore all these ceremonies involve chanting of mantras by vedic learned brahmanas. The rituals involves three parts - udhayashanthi, seemantham and valaikappu.
In udhayashanthi, there were around 7/8 brahmanas who chanted soft yet powerful mantras for about an hour and half. I remember getting goosebumps from their sharp voice yet soft mantras. They had kept a pot of water mixed with some herbs in between them during the mantra chanting ceremony. Once finished, they asked my husband to pour the water from the pot onto me.
Valaikappu is the bangle ceremony. The pregnant woman is adorned with 20 bangles in left hand and 21 bangles in the right hand. In our family, the mother is the only one who is allowed to arrange the bangles in the pregnant woman's hands. There are 4 kinds of bangles - vepillai kaapu (bangle made out of tender neem twigs), thanga kaapu (bangle made of thin gold strands), velli kaapu (bangle made out of thin silver strands) and the glass bangles. My mom arranged the bangles in the above order. I still can remember her serious face while she was trying to arrange the bangles in my hand. She was nervous and was praying god that the delivery should go on well. Then the bangles were arranged for the maru-manai. The bangles were then given to other women who attended the ceremony.
In seemantham, there was what is known in tamil as aala moghu/aththi moghu and a porcupine quill. Aala moghu and aththi moghu were ground to a paste and little juice was taken and put in through my nostrils - just a single drop in each nostril. I believe there were more mantras - dont remember exactly what happened.
Then there was poo-chootal - All the ladies of the house were requested to place a tiny strand of flowers in my plaited hair.
Oh, one more thing to add here is that every single lady attending the ritual gave the blessing that I should bear a boy baby. In India boys are considered to be better than the girls as they are the ones who would carry on the family name. There was just one person who gave me the blessing to bear a healthy baby - she did not mention the sex of the baby - her exact words were - 'I will pray God to give you a healthy baby'. She was the maru manai - and my Husband's cousin. I can never ever forget those words. And If Achchu is reading this blog, I would request her/him to Remember to Always Thank his/her aththai for her blessings. :)
I will update this post if i remember more details on these ceremonies. :)
Do you leave your comments below..
Thanks!
Thank you dear. Was very informative. My husband's family do not follow all these rituals. So my parents did a very simple ceremony. I was wondering what to do for my daughter. Thank you very much.
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