In Bali, newborns are believed to be holy and their feet are not permitted to touch the earth even for a moment, so they are always carried. When they turn 105 days on the Balinese lunar calendar, a grand ceremony, Tigang Sasih, takes place, and on this day the baby’s feet touch the ground for the first time.

In Korea the 100 day celebration is called Baek-il. They give thanks to Samshin and pray for wealth and luck, and celebrate with a small feast. Red bean rice cakes are placed at four compass points in the house for protection, good fortune, and happiness. It is believed that if 100 people share the rice cakes, the child will live a long life, so the family will send rice cakes to neighbors and friends. The recipients return the dishes with lengths of thread, which reflects the hope of long life, and rice and money, which symbolizes future wealth.

Many cultures have come to adopt the concept of the 100 day celebration as a great time to celebrate without it being too soon after birth for the baby and the mom and without waiting an entire year.  For the Chinese, it perhaps represents the wish that the baby will live 100 years. A silver longevity pendant is worn, and pants with lots and lots of fringe, because phonetically fringe sounds like “year” in Chinese.

My daughter’s hundred day birthday came and went without much fanfare, but as my husband’s family is Chinese, we had planned to do a banquet celebration when we visited at Christmastime. Baby Winter had a little gathering on her 151st day birthday, which happened to be the day after the Winter Solstice, so it was all the more perfect day for a celebration. It was a great feast, but as she only hit her five month mark on Christmas Eve and we haven’t started any solids, she couldn’t partake in any of the food.

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She didn’t wear any fancy clothes or jewelry, but she did receive a great personalized marble stamp from her auntie. We had a fabulous Chinese birthday cake that beats any regular birthday cake hands down – the freshest fruit and real whipping cream.

The family decided to gather up some items for Zhuazhou. This is usually done on the one year birthday, where parents place an assortment of articles in front of their child, and her choice reflects her future  interests, career and inclination. My little five month old just stared blankly at everything, and she typically doesn’t reach for anything normally, but when daddy put an iPhone down, it was probably the only thing she actually recognized and she made a motion toward it.

Here are some examples of traditional Zhuazhou items and what they suggest:

  • stamps -> a future as an officer
  • stationery -> industrious and endowed with great literary talents
  • abacus -> statistics and finance
  • cooking or sewing implements -> a good housewife
  • cake or toy -> she will know how to enjoy the pleasures in life.
It was a great time to get family together, some of whom met Winter for the first time, including my 91 year old grandmother. Winter was all smiles and although she was bounced to sleep by me in a carrier for 8 out of 10 courses of the meal, she woke up at the best time for everyone to take their turns holding her and snapping photos.
Did you celebrate a 100 day birthday or something similar? What did you do?