In our environment, the moment in which a child begins to go to school is usually tinged with more or less emotion associated with separation and growth, and we usually keep a memory in the form of photographs. In other cultures, the importance of starting school goes further and an offering ceremony to the gods is performed.
In India all the children who are going to step on the classrooms go through the “Aksharabhyasam”, an event in which the boy or girl is “blessed” and “prepared” to go to school for the first time. If this offering is not carried out, the child is not prepared to go to school, because he has not been led by the Gods.
What is done in this ceremony is a “pooja” or offering (food, flowers, saris ...) collective, since the "poojari" or priest will have summoned several families with their children on the same day and at the same time to do it. This appointment is not accidental, because depending on the day of birth of each child the priest decides the most suitable date for the Aksharabhyasam.
On the appointed day, each family carries a blackboard and small bowls with food and flowers (each family mixes what they want or can offer) to perform the pooja. They ask God for the success in the education of their son on the board where these offerings are mixed.
After the poojari, will pass with a bowl full of rice and help the boy or girl write the letters A, B and C on the rice: are the child's first letters. Next, the name of a God is written on the board, and the child is made to imitate the letters.
In this way the child is ready to receive wisdom, and from that moment parents can take it to school whenever they want. Undoubtedly, an important and crucial moment in the life of a child has been stained with majesty, which goes much more unnoticed for many families in other parts.
Even if we take photographs, it seems that the school is sometimes understood simply as an aid to work, when not an "escape route" for children to be served by others. But let's not forget that there are many hours for such young children, sometimes they spend more hours with their teachers than with their parents, and that the path they start at school will mark them deeply.
This is what Aksharabhyasam celebrates, also asking that the child do well in this adventure. This school preparation ceremony it took place this August in Hyderabad and we have met it thanks to the experiences in India of “Looking for truffles”.
Via and Photos | Looking for truffles In Babies and more | Children fighting with snakes as a tourist attraction, Children are thrown into the void in India, one more year
