Omiyamairi
Photo taken on January 22, 2005 at 14:57:43 - (Clicking on the photo will show the next photo)
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This is a picture of me holding Karuna as we are about to take part in
a Japanese ceremony called omiyamairi. The meaning of omiyamairi
is "shrine visit", and it is typical for a Japanese family to take their
child to the shrine when he/she turns one month old. Since we live
close by to one of Japan's most important shrines (Meiji Jingu), we
decided to take Karuna there. That may have been a mistake as the shrine
was packed with people lining up for omiyamairi. Most people waiting to
be blessed were not one-month old babies, but people who were born in
a year that is unlucky in 2005. People born in unlucky years can minimize
their bad luck through a visit to the shrine. Since we were visiting the
shrine in January, there were large crowds of adults lining up for
their blessing. Women born in 1969, 1973, and 1987 will have unlucky
years in 2005 (Hitomi was born in 1973, but she figured that Karuna's
Omiyamairi was enough, and didn't feel the need to be blessed herself).
In this photo, we are sitting and waiting to be let in. Soon afterwards,
we entered the main part of the shrine with a crowd of maybe 50 people
being blessed and another 100 or so accompanying them. Luckily, Karuna's
name was called early in the ceremony because about 5 minutes into the
ceremony Karuna decided she was hungry. She started to cry, and Hitomi's
mother took her away and carried her around the back of the room. That
only worked for a few minutes, at which point Hitomi was called to the
back of the room where she fed Karuna while the ceremony was still going
on.
