Yesterday I was invited to attend a baby blessing for a baby not yet born with the Sri Lankan community. I was planning on delivering robes I had worked on for my nun who lives in Colorado Springs and she was going to be in Denver for this blessing ceremony. I got to attend the event, and then drive her back in time for her meditation group on Saturday night. It is nice to be part of a community.
It was just a really lovely day. I have joined the community several times for Vesak (the holiday in spring) and enjoy eating all the tasty food they make. I realized to avoid the jack fruit however because they make that so spicy. But the dish with cashews, and the soy meat ones are my favorite. There was even chocolate mousse! People are friendly, I did notice however the men talk to me more than the women. The hostess however greeted and hugged me when I came. Probably the women are super busy with food.
I know one chant, the rest is unknown to me. It is in Pali so the chants are the same across all Theravadan groups. I got to hear the dharma talk traditional for a baby blessing. It was about Angulimala, a famous murderer who collected fingers of those he killed around his neck and then became a monk. Interesting. It was given by the tiniest human I know, a Thervadan nun who became a nun after her children were grown. It is a big goal of my Western nun to bring connections across the cultures. I have been to enough events that some people know me, well I was the only white person in the room as well. The Sri Lankan community is very generous, my car was filled with donations. They give gifts to the nuns instead of a baby shower (they may have that too).
Now I need to work on fitting the robes better to her, she gets untraditional because she is outside of a monastery. So her robe for winter will have a hood and pockets!