Full Month Party and Grabbing Test

The Chinese used to believe that “there are three forms of unfilial conduct,of which the worst is to have no descendants.” Giving birth to and raising children constitute a major event for Chinese family,especially giving birth to sons.Therefore,a series of celebration activities will follow after the birth of a child,of which the most typical are full month party and grabbing test.

The earliest record of the full month party was in the Tang Dynasty (618-907),Emperor Gaozong Li Zhi (628-683) entertained lavishly for three days to celebrate his son’s completion of his first month of life.Later,as the full month party entered folklore,the ordinary people also held full month parties for their children.At the party,the mother or grandmother would carry the child from one table to another to recognize people,and the relatives and friends would say something to praise the child.In some places,the relatives and friends would also take a few red eggs back after the full month party.Today,a newborn will only appear in a video probably out of consideration for its health.

Full Month Party and Grabbing Test

In many places,there is another custom that,after the full month party,the mother will take the child back to her parental home to live for some time,which was called house moving.In some other places,the child should have his head shaved upon completion of his first month of life,and the lanugo hair shaved off will be kept in a red cloth or made into a brush or some other handicraft as a souvenir.

As the child grows up,the elders will place an infinite expectation on him and they are anxious to know what will he be after grown up,whether he will have a promising future? Hence the grabbing test,also known as the “test for the infant”,conducted upon the completion of his full year of life.The custom of grabbing test is said to be found as early as the Three Kingdoms period (220-280).According to legend,soon after Sun Quan (182-252),monarch of Wu (222-280),became the king,the crown prince died in his bed,so Sun Quan had to select a new heir.At this time,a man came to tell Sun Quan that,in the process of selection he should not only focus on whether the prince showed honest virtue,but also focus on whether the son of the prince had talent,and then he told the king the method to find out the children’s future.Convinced by what the man said,Sun Quan chose an auspicious day,and asked all the princes to bring over their sons and let them grab from jewelry,ivory,rhinoceros horns,bamboo slips,ribbons and other things on a plate.Some of them grabbed jade,some grabbed the rhinoceros horns,but only Sun Hao (242-284),the son of Sun He (224-253) grabbed the bamboo slips and ribbons.Sun Quan was overjoyed,and then appointed Sun He as the crown prince.However,the other princes refused to accept this decision and respectively associated with ministers,and the struggle started.Sun Quan was forced to abolish Sun He and appoint Sun Liang (243-260) as the crown prince.After the death of Sun Quan,Sun Liang was overthrown after only seven years of reign,and Sun Xiu (235-264) took the throne.After the death of Sun Xiu,since his son was still very young,the ministers wanted an older prince as the king,so Sun Hao,who was just over 20,was selected.Sun Hao reigned for 14 years,longer than the previous three kings.For this,people silently admired the test method.

Later,this method spread to folklore and gradually became a custom,and has continued to the present.When a child completes its full year of life,adults will put tools,stationery,books,weapons,daily essentials and so on in front of it to grab freely.If it grabs a seal,they will say the child will be an official; if it grabs stationery,they will say the child will be good at writing; if it grabs an abacus,they will say the child will be good at financial management; if it grabs a green onion,they will say the child will be smart,because “onion” and “smart” are homonyms in Chinese.In short,people can say a good word about anything the child will grab.Even if it grabs food,they will say the child will be lucky in having food,rather than say it is greedy.Whether this method is reliable seems less important than giving an opportunity for people to express good wishes for their children’s future.