Hair cutting ceremony

It seems as though there are many cultures that like to commemorate a child's first haircut and the Mongolian culture is no different in this area. While in America, we may go to a barber while our mother takes some pictures and perhaps saves a lock or two, here in Mongolia there is an entire celebration (called a Daah Urgeeh). 

Once a child turns a certain age according to the lunar calendar (even ages for boys like 2 or 4 and odd ages for girls), their parents throw a party celebrating the child's transition from babyhood to childhood. This can be an intimate party just for family members or a big party with lots of guests and usually happens on a special day (a buddhist monk or lama can tell them when is the best time). I was fortunate to be invited to one of these which is really pretty cool as not many foreigners get to be involved (about a year ago - I'm behind on blogging).

This is my principal, Tumuur and his son on the right. They were sitting at the head table along with grandparents, aunts and uncles and other special family members and guests.

As with many Mongolian celebrations (and ours for that matter) there was a TON of great food. Here is a sheep and a tower of biscuit/cookie type things. Later in the evening, my principal cut the sheep and served everyone - it reminded me of the head of the household carving the turkey at Thanksgiving.

One of the courses was this chicken with pineapple and smiley faces. FUN!

What's a Mongolian celebration without entertainment - especially someone playing the horse head fiddle which is a very traditional Mongolian instrument.

 We sat down to eat a really nice meal with several courses and were entertained by singers, dancers and musicians. Once everyone had had a chance to eat and enjoy themselves, the ceremony began with another family member whose hair cutting ceremony was in the same lunar calendar as the boy  (this can be a close friend if no one in the family matches up) taking the first lock of hair. Scissors with a blue scarf (a prayer scarf) attached to them were used and as each lock of hair was cut, it was placed into a little pouch on the boys back. I discovered later that the hair must not be thrown away nor ever touch the ground and will be kept for another ceremony when the child enters adulthood. 

After this, the family members were then allowed to cut and with each cut, the guest gave a gift to the boy (money or toys).  I saw small little tinker toys all the way to child-sized battery powered cars that they can literally get into and drive around (this was a hit) as well as a nice bike. 

His grandfather rolled the hair up and afterwords, placed it in the boys pouch on his back.

A grandmother, very proud, and smiling from ear to ear with some tears in her eyes. So sweet.

Once the family members had their turn, it was time for us other guests to give gifts and cut his locks!

There was a friend helping us - I suppose so we didn't cut too much hair and none would be left for the other guests, haha! They had probably close to 100 people - he got a TON of fun gifts and money!

While he was going around, getting his first haircut, each table stood up and sang for all the guests. Many of the songs were like lullabies or nursery rhymes, songs about kids and/or mothers. My table had a few of us foreigners so we sang "You are my sunshine".

As the ceremony wound down, my principal came around to each table and we toasted to his son's transition into childhood.

As you can imagine, the boys hair looked pretty uneven and choppy after this ceremony but soon after, he got his head shaved and his "new" hair came in (kind of like us losing baby teeth so our adult teeth can come in). After this ceremony, his hair will be kept short.

It was a pretty neat experience to be a part of! And since then I've wondered if I could ever get my friends and family members to give me gifts for the privilege of cutting my hair...