Naming Ceremony ideas!

[Rainbowhairdontcare]

We're having a naming ceremony for our baby due in November. I've never done anything like this before, so would.like some ideas.

Our guest list would consist mainly of our congregation (it varies week to week, but on average there's 15 of them). Maybe DHs family (mum, brother, SIL, sister and two nieces), maybe my mum and probably three other random friends of mine and his.

We're not particularly close to any of these friends, and most of his family lives 7+ hrs away (so does my mum). my congregation holds services at a local school, we could just have it there as they're the only guaranteed guests, bit also would like something a tad more special. I'm not entirely sure if we'd want to hire a separate venue or not.

Other thing that I'm clueless about... It if we're to happen ASAP after giving birth (one week ideally but it's a bit flexible), what date would you book the venue for? Two weeks after EDD? Three weeks to be sure in case baby is overdue?

A naming ceremony - is that an excuse for encourage people to buy you things or is your child the firstborn of a sacred tribe?

en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Naming_ceremony

Oh it’s a thing!
Excuse my ignorance then, I was under the impression that it was a commercial enterprise.

Not at all! I'm Jewish, normally it would be a circumcision ceremony (Brit Milah) but as we're both against it, we're just having a Brit Shalom, in other words a naming and welcoming to the community ceremony.

I'm slightly confused, you have a congregation so I'm imagining you are Christian, doesn't the church/faith you belong to have ay guidelines?

I've been to one humanist celebration it was in a side room of a cafe.

Everyone had something to eat and either tea or coffee. Then the parents stood up with the baby and a couple of people read things, one of the readings was one from the humanist wedding the parents had had, sort of like the tradition of keeping the top layer of a wedding cake for a christening.

Then we all toasted the baby with sparkling wine.

We all contributed a picture and some words to a book for the baby when he is older, the parents had set up a smart phone with a printer that printed photos with a sticky back.

It was a really lovely afternoon.

I would't book anything until after the baby is here, you never know if they are going to show up early or late.

As form my above post I'm Jewish. Usually the baby would be circumcised but that's not going to happen. This is the first baby boy born in the community. Had to consult at least three rabbis on the matter, and we concluded that a "naming ceremony" would be enough, but it would be the first of its type in our community too. As our guests wouldn't be Jewish, we wouldn't want it to be too alien for them, so that why we though of a hall/hotel.

I'm just arranging a naming ceremony for my newly adopted DS. We aren't having religious ceremony but we have 2 Guardians who will give short speeches as will my DH & I.

We are going to have a box or book for people to write a short note with their wishes/prayers for DS. I'm thinking of doing a naming tree with guests adding their fingerprints as leaves on the tree.
There will be cake and fizz to make a toast to our new baby. I'm sure there are lots of other lovely ways you can celebrate your new baby if you look on pinterest or Instagram.

In my view it's just an opportunity to introduce our new baby to friends and family.

Sorry I cross posted with you.

How exciting being the first to have the ceremony, and also I'm glad you are not doing the circumcision.

I assume there will be a rabbi actually conducting the service.

What I've seen work well within my family who are part RC, part not RC but not sure what they are and part complete atheist is to have the ceremony explained as it goes along. eg at my mother's funeral the priest explained why he was greeting the coffin at the door and using some holy water.

The priest also explained the other bits that might deem odd such as, 'the sign of peace' where everyone shakes hands.

As it's the first the congregation might appreciate that too.

Congratulations for what ever you choose.

Unless there’s a religious reason to do it quickly after birth I’d wait at least a month - gives you time to recover and have the energy to prepare for the ceremony, which I imagine will also include some sort of reception/meal?
Is there a reason you are inviting people you are not close to? I’d only invite very dear friends to such a personal event. But I don’t know what form it takes. I’m catholic and a baptism can be part of a normal Sunday mass or separately after, so anyone could attend if it was Sunday mass.

Traditionally it should happen within 8 days of the birth, but since there's no circumcision involved we can be more flexible about it.

The reason why we'd invite "extra" people is so it feels more like a social event. We don't have any local family/friends. Without them it would only be the congregation and us, which is fine by me, but to most events (like bar mitzvahs) it's a mix of both.

No advice but I'm Jewish but against circumcision and I think it sounds like a lovely idea.

I've only been to one naming ceremony and it was beautiful. One of the (many) things I really liked was that the children of the guide parents all have the baby symbolic gifts. Bread, so she would never go hungry, Wood so she would never be cold etc

That last idea sounds lovely, but not really in tune with what we'd be doing. In the end it's a scripted religious ceremony (the important bits are that he follows a good life following the teachings of the Torah).

Simply all mentions of "the covenant" will be removed.