First haircut
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
The first haircut for a human has special significance in certain cultures and religions. It can be considered a rite of passage or a milestone.
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[edit] United States babies
In the United States, the first haircut is considered a milestone for a baby which is often marked by saving a lock of the cut hair. The age at which the first haircut occurs varies widely, depending on cultural and religious background, and on the baby's amount of hair.
In the 19th century, the first haircut marked the time when boys would begin to look different from girls.
[edit] Native American babies
Some Native American tribes commemorated the first haircut with a ritualistic dance. The Apache tribe had a springtime ritual.
[edit] African American boys
There is an African American tradition of performing the first haircut on or around the child's first birthday. Hair cutting usually occurs in a barbershop, which has been a core social institution in African American culture.
[edit] Orthodox Jews
[edit] Orthodox boys
Custom varies among the Orthodox. Great fervently orthodox (Haredi) non-Hasidic Rabbis, such as the Steipler gaon, Rabbi Y. Y. Kanievsky, and Rabbi Velvel Soloveitchik opposed the relatively new practice strongly on various grounds, including questionable origin. Hassidim, however, practiced it nevertheless. Most Hasidic Jewish boys get their first haircut around age 3. The hair-cutting ceremony is called the upsherenish or upsherin, a Yiddish word meaning to "cut off".
This custom is believed by some Hasidim to have its roots in the Torah, which compares a man to a tree.
- "A person is like the tree of a field..." (Deut. 20:19)
Because fruit may not be cut from a tree during the first three years of its life (Leviticus 19:23), a boy's hair does not get cut for the first three years of his life. This attribution, however, is questioned by opponents of the practice, and doesn't appear in ancient sources.
There used to be a custom of weighing the hair after it was cut, and then the father would donate the value of the hair's weight. Today the hair is often donated to a charity that uses the hair to make wigs for sick children.
The first haircut is often styled to give the boy payot (sidelocks).
The custom of the Skverer Hasidic sect is to have the upsherin at age two.
In Israel, many non-religious families still wait three years to cut their son's hair. Many boys get their first haircut on the holiday Lag Ba'omer at the tomb of Rabbi Simeon bar Yohai in the Galilee town of Meron.
[edit] Hasidic women
In many Hasidic sects the married women shave all their hair. This custom has its basis in the writings of Rabbi Moses Sofer. The first such haircut is often done the day after the wedding by the bride's mother.
[edit] Indian babies
[edit] Hindu babies
Hindus practice a variety of rituals from birth to death. Collectively these are known as samskaras, meaning rites of purification, and are believed to make the body pure and fit for worship. A boy's first haircut, known as choula, is one such samskara and is considered an event of great auspiciousness. The lawbooks or smritis prescribe that a boy must have his haircut in his first or third year. While complete tonsure is common, some Hindus prefer to leave some hair on the head, distinguishing this rite from the inauspicious tonsure that occurs upon the death of a parent. Those that practice complete tonsure generally ritually offer the hair to their family deity. Many travel to temples such as the famed Tirupati shrine of Lord Vishnu to perform this ceremony.
Traditionally, a Hindu girl never has her hair cut, even as a woman; however, some Hindus practice a tonsure ceremony for girls as well. The details vary by sect, locality, and family.
[edit] Kashmiri babies
Kashmiri babies often get their first haircut at Makhdoon Sahib shrine, because tradition holds that toddlers whose bangs are trimmed here can expect a blessing from the 16th century Sufi saint Makhdoon Sahib. (source)
[edit] Maliku babies
At the twentieth day from birth, Maliku babies' heads are shaven and the hair is weighed against gold or silver, which is given to the poor. The ceremony is called boabeylun.
[edit] Chinese babies
A Chinese baby often receives its first haircut at the end of its first month. Traditionally, the baby's head was shaved except at the top of the crown to remove the hair they considered was grown in the womb. The cut hair was then tied with red string and saved as a keepsake. (source)
[edit] Ukrainian babies
Ukrainian babies often have their hair cut on their first birthday as part of the ancient Postryzhennya custom. (source)
[edit] Yazidi bisk
In the Yazidi tradition (mainly in Iran), the bisk ceremony envolves cutting of a baby boy's two or three first locks, according to old traditions by his 40th day after birth to be given to the family's shaikh and pir, but in modern practice at 7 to 11 months, and kept by the family. The bisk ceremony is regarded as the central initiatory ritual by most Yazidis from Turkey, Armenia. and Syria. In the European Diaspora, the term is often translated as "baptism." The ceremony is reminiscent of the Moslem `Aqiqa* celebrated on the seventh day after birth, but the Yazidi ceremony takes place at a later stage, when the child has already been named.
