"3 things I have seen this week November 2018 #2 : Baptismal Edition"

"3 things I have seen this week November 2018 #2 : Baptismal Edition"

by:

Virgilio F. De leon Jr.MD

Attending a child's baptismal can both be interesting and boring. When I was young I must have been dragged by my mom to dozens of these things but I think I paid more attention to the food and the fact that my mom was happy to have me there with her than to care about the said baptismal. 

Fast forward to Aven and her 2nd time to be a Ninang. Since it was like a father-daughter date this time around I finally got to hear a lot of what was going on. Here are the three things I have learned.

1) Only the Child. 

The white dresses/clothes that symbolizes the purity of the baptized child should only be worn after the the child has actually been baptized. In short you don't doll up the child in an elaborate three piece ensemble at home which as far as I remember has been the norm. Weird.

2) Names.

People nowadays give weirder and weirder names. Since you can see this pinned on the parents and you try to say it out loud and it just sounds off. I mean how do you really pronounce Khyeil Jhazztinne? or maybe explain to a child that he is named Kobe Link Drexler? Or why his name is the backwards name of his father like in the case of Alucard?

Bahala na ang magulang.

I just amused myself by watching the priest conducting the baptismal rites furrow his eyebrows while thinking of how to pronounce a name and just give up and ask the parent to say the child's name out loud.

3) White.

The person being baptized is the child in your hands so in other words they should be the only one's wearing white. If you have everyone in your family who is attending this baptism wear all white it looks like a damn funeral. So please. Leave your white outfits at home and let the child have the spotlight. After all it is her or his baptismal.