The Baby Choosing Ceremony (抓周仪式) has been a Chinese tradition designed to honour a child's growth and development.
However, most Chinese do not practise this in Singapore, and some may not even be aware of its existence.
Home-grown party planner, Mr. Bottle’s Kids Party decided to launch the Baby Choosing Ceremony for 1-year-olds, with their very own unique innovations, in Singapore.
“This is a meaningful project. I think most Chinese, like my grandparents, came as young migrants to Singapore. After they got married and have children, they may not have their older relatives or parents with them to advise them on this tradition. Hence, it slowly faded off over the years here,” explained Mr Wee Kien Meng, the founder of Mr Bottle’s Kids Party.
History of the Baby Choosing Ceremony
Baby choosing ceremony can be found recorded in several famous Chinese literature such as Dream of the Red Chamber《红楼梦》in which Jia Baoyu chose the hairpin on his first birthday.
The tradition can also be traced all the way back to the Three Kingdoms period. Not long after Sun Quan, the lord of Wu, proclaimed himself as the emperor, the crown prince Sun Deng fell ill and died. Sun Quan had the difficult decision of choosing a crown prince among his other sons.
A commoner named Jing Yang suggested a way to test and find the right candidate. He used a plate full of pearl shells, ivory, rhino horns, etc., and let the Sun Quan’s grandchildren grab whatever they wanted. All of them either grab emeralds or take rhino horns. Only Sun Hao, the son of Sun He, grabbed the scroll with one hand and the official seal with the other. Sun Quan was overjoyed and made Sun He the crown prince. Later, many people also used similar methods to test the future of the children, thus forming the custom in the south of the Yangtze River
This tradition was also recorded in "Yan's Family Instructions" 《颜氏家训》; when a child turns one (周岁), items like bows, arrows, paper, pens for boys, and knives, rulers, needles, thread for girls were placed in front of their children. Whichever item the child picks up first, it is regarded as a sign of what they will grow up to be.
By the Tang and Song Dynasties, this custom had spread from the south of the Yangtze River to all over China, and gradually became popular all over the country.
Perfecting the Choosing Ceremony Took 4 Years
Baby Choosing Ceremony is a key part of Chinese culture. Faced with the possibility that this tradition may disappear in Singapore forever, Mr Wee decided to rejuvenate this cultural ceremony in his new party service launch this year.
“It is always in our company DNA to create new things every year. Our past innovations included Singapore’s first fusion Science and Magic show by Professor Messy and fossil digging in our dinosaur themed party, both of which gained popularity quickly. I firmly believe this is no exception,” Mr Wee shared.
Despite the diluted cultural influences on Singapore’s millennials, all is not lost. The traditional baby choosing ceremony is still widely celebrated in China and Taiwan. Hence, Mr Bottle’s Kids Party, with the help of their Taiwan branch, did their research and refined their own proprietary version of the traditional baby ceremony over the course of 4 years.
“We are still working out the intricacies of marrying tradition and party needs cohesively. In Taiwan, we just launched our Choosing Ceremony Picture Book (抓周绘本) which documents the whole process in a customised book!”
On top of that, Mr Bottle’s Kids Party has kept up with the needs of younger customers and reinvented this for the future. “The tradition includes many rituals, so we chose the ones which are the most suitable, interactive, meaningful and appealing to our Singapore customers.”
Highlights of Mr Bottle's Choosing Ceremony
Of course, the highlight of the choosing ceremony is to have various items placed near the child and he or she is encouraged to pick up a few objects. The objects used have modernised with time. For instance, instead of using abacus and arrow, one may use calculator and pen.
“We wanted to make it into an interactive show centred around the birthday baby and family.”
Hence, Mr Bottle’s Kids Party incorporated traditional elements and created new methods to make it interactive and fun for the party guests:
- Suitability – Careers as well as items, which are popular among Singaporeans, are chosen for the ceremony.
- Meaningful –The meanings behind each ritual are explained so everyone will understand the ‘why’ for each of them.
- Interactive – The activities are designed to engage the elders as well as all the guests to ensure they have a fun experience throughout.
- Appealing - The choosing ceremony is captivating as the script includes comical elements which can be adapted depending on the crowd. Having worked with families for the past 20 years, Mr Bottle’s Kids Party understand what is best suited for different dynamics of guests.
- Memorable – As part of the ceremony, a customised certificate will be presented to the family, so they have a wonderful memory of the party. Knowing that it is difficult to take great photos of babies, Mr Bottle’s Kids Party even trains and works with family photographers to capture these significant moments during the ceremony.
- Incorporating other fun elements – As a magician, Mr Bottle also added magic into the ceremony which appeals to the young and old.
A happy customer, Lavina Chew, raves about the ceremony after engaging Mr Bottle, “The choosing ceremony turned out exceptionally well and my guests from kids to adults became very enthusiastic cheering for her to choose the items they wanted! Highly recommended!”
“My vision is not only to reach out to the Chinese, but also to other races to experience this unique culture. So far, the responses have been great! We already had several enquiries and a client booking us in December,” disclosed Mr Wee.
You can find out more about this one-year-old package at Mr Bottle's Kids Party.
Images Credit: Mr Bottle's Kids Party
When
24 April 2023 - 31 May 2024, See the website for the opening hours.
Age
1
Price
Choosing Ceremony Booking(30-45min): 600 SGD (We will come to your venue to conduct the ceremony)
Choosing ceremony with Decor and fringe activity: 999 SGD (We will come to your venue to conduct the ceremony)
Telephone number
+65 9739 7503
Links
Address
Singapore59 Ubi Avenue 1 #05-10, Singapore 408938