The evolution of modern Chinese rituals and customs of birth

Wang Dan

The ritual of life is an important part of the state and folk Chinese culture. The subject of analysis of this work was the evolution of Chinese rituals and customs of birth. The rituals and customs of birth according to chronology consist of three main stages: Prayer custom before the birth of a child, Customs during pregnancy and the Ritual after the birth of a child. The most important third stage includes four main components: the ritual of washing the newborn baby (on the 3rd day), the ritual of the one month old, the ritual of the hundredth day from the day of the birth of the child, the ritual of the one year old. For more than two thousand years, the rituals and customs of birth have undergone a long tradition, are constantly enriched and improved, some have been preserved to this day, some have been lost. Some retained their former form, but changed the content; others created new rituals on the same topic. Over time, the religious appearance of the ritual of life gradually faded and reduced to simplicity, a tendency to secularization arose. This result of the secularization of life etiquette inevitably merges into modern social interaction and gradually turns into an integral part of social etiquette.

Keywords:China, traditional culture, ritual, life rituals, The rituals and customs of birth, evolution of rituals and customs, secularization of birth rituals