Congratulations! You have brought a brand new sacred little human being into the world. As a pagan, you will want to celebrate the birth with family, friends, and your community.
Pagan baby celebrations serve a couple of functions. They actively celebrate the new child and offer thanks for their birth. They’re also an essential way of strengthening our community bonds and ensuring the child is introduced into pagan culture.
Pagan baby celebrations involve calling for the protection and blessing of the patron deity upon the child and welcoming them into the home or the larger community. It usually involves invoking the four cardinal directions and the elements of earth, air, fire, and water, but there’s no rulebook to follow.
Pagan celebrations on the birth of a new baby can take several different forms. You can have a baby blessing ceremony when you first bring the baby home or at the time of birth.
This is to welcome the new baby into the house, ask for protection for the child, and purify the environment. Later, you can have a naming ceremony where the child’s name is declared in the presence of witnesses who are invited to bless the baby and bring gifts.
Celebrate the Babies Delivery and Birth
Celebrating the birth itself often involves easing the delivery for the mother and celebrating her unique role. This is often harder in a modern hospital, but it's still possible. Make sure to discuss with the doctor or midwife beforehand what you can bring into and do in the delivery room.
Make sure to pay respects to the mother deity here. Even if she is not your patron, this is her portfolio. Offerings and prayers to her are a great way to welcome your baby into the world and ensure their health.
One of the major preparations for birth is the lighting of candles. Along with prayers to the mother deity, this can offer guidance for the expecting mother. The light shows you, or her, the way. Only extinguish the candle after the birth is done, and feel free to invite other pagans to do the same. The more prayers in this time, the better.
It's also important to emphasize our connection to nature and family during the occasion of the birth. Many pagans choose to give birth at home or in the natural environment because of this. Ensure you follow the correct safety procedures, though, as well as honor the spirits when you do.
Setting up a ritual circle for both spiritual and material safety is also a good idea. This creates a sacred space, which is extremely helpful for easing the birth and maintaining peace in the changing family dynamic.
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Pagan Baby Blessing
If you follow Gaelic or Celtic pagan traditions, you may wish to have a saining ceremony around the bed of childbirth or the baby’s cradle once you arrive home. Fire has long been recognized for its protective qualities and has the added advantage of symbolically lighting the way in the dark, so the ceremony involves using a flame.
What is Saining?
“Saining” is an old Scottish word for blessing, protecting, or consecrating. There are similar words in other Gaelic languages. Holding a saining for the new child involves blessing and protecting them and warding them against the evil eye.
Saining should not be confused with smudging. It is used to affirm and uphold the natural order and purify the environment. The smoke used in the ceremony is traditionally from juniper or yew, but you can also use sacred herbs like tobacco, cedarwood, sage, and sweetgrass.
A pine candle or other candle is twirled around the bed or cradle three times deosil while reciting a charm or incantation over the baby. It is a kind of purification ritual.
Norse Traditions
If you follow Norse pagan traditions, you can sprinkle the baby with drops of water while praying to the goddesses Frigg and Freya for protection. The Vikings sang ritual galdr-songs to protect the new mother and baby. A galdr is a spell or incantation chanted by the mother or father or those present at the birth.
You should choose the elements of the ceremony in accordance with your particular pagan beliefs and tradition, but you are free to design your own rite.
Photo by Kelly Sikkema
Naming Ceremonies
The next important step is to give your baby their pagan name, which is a ceremony in of itself. Pagan naming ceremonies take many forms. The naming ceremony introduces the baby to family and friends.
When Do I Have a Naming Ceremony?
Many pagans say the naming should take place only after the baby has shed the remains of the umbilical cord, while others wait for nine days after the birth. However, they can take place even if the child is older as there is no set age. Most try to do it before the baby is one year old.
In the Viking pagan tradition, nine nights after the birth, the father places the child on his knee, and the little one is sprinkled with water. The dad officially welcomes the baby to the home and family. A pagan dad might wish to prepare a short speech containing a welcome, a blessing, and a prayer asking the deity of the hearth to protect and accept the child.
He also pronounces the baby’s name. Guests can be invited to this naming ceremony to bring gifts and to wish the baby well. In the old days, the baby was usually named after a deceased ancestor or a Norse god.
Some pagans opt to give the baby both a secret and a secular name. Since the naming of a child is one of the first and most significant gifts to offer, the name should be chosen with care and following the parents’ pagan tradition.
In Wiccan, Druidic, and other traditions, a priest or priestess can be asked to preside over the naming ceremony. This is where the child is held up to those gathered and introduced to the deity and the community. Since paganism is nature-based, the naming ceremony is usually held outdoors amidst flowers and trees.
At this time, guardians can also be appointed to nurture and guide the child through life. These are people with whom you want the baby to have a strong connection. Those invited can circle the child and officially welcome them by saying a few words or chanting a blessing written beforehand.
Dedicate Your Baby to a Deity
Often performed alongside the naming ceremony is the dedication of your baby to a deity. An ancient practice, we believe that this service places your child under the protection of a deity and gives them a sacred lifelong connection with them.
Unlike the saining though, you can do this one in private or with a small group of close friends. This isn’t directly a community affair, although it obviously plays into it. Rather, this is a service between the parents, their baby, and their deity.
It’s a good idea as well to also keep in mind your baby’s pagan name. You may want to pick one that relates to their patron deity in some way. That way their connection is even stronger, and your child will better know their roots.
Paying attention to their moon and star signs can be helpful as well.
Typically, this dedication has two parts to it. First, beseech your household deities for blessings, ideally soon after the birth. As vital figures in your home, they have a right to be included. Similarly, they can be invaluable in raising your child properly as long as they’re under your roof and in your hearts.
Second, choose the deity who will be your child’s patron. This isn’t permanent, and many pagans, especially converts, select a new patron deity later in life. Your baby can’t right now, though, so call upon the deity you trust the most to protect and guide your child.
Both parts of the dedication involve prayers and rituals, ideally in the house itself. Make sure to have the appropriate offerings for the household deities and other spirits and those for the chosen patron.
What is Wiccaning?
Wiccaning is the name commonly given to a rite of passage for a new baby born to a Wiccan. The ceremony does not commit the child to any religion because they must follow any path they choose of their own free will. The promises made are caring for and nurturing the child by the parents and the community or coven.
The ceremony can also be used for the parents to ask for guidance and wisdom in raising the child lovingly and responsibly. The altar should be prepared as usual, and the child should be clothed in a unique garment for the occasion. The group should conduct appropriate rituals to make the space sacred and clear out negative energies.
After invoking the patron deity, the parents present the child to the four cardinal directions while declaring the name inside the circle.
Parents speak specially prepared blessings over the baby and place a protective amulet upon them. Special guests like grandparents or guardians can write a letter for the child expressing their love, hopes, and best wishes. These letters can be given to them when they turn eighteen.
Rite of Welcoming
In Druidic circles, the new baby is given a Rite of Welcoming, which can include a naming rite. It can be held in the back garden, a ring of standing stones, the center of a labyrinth, or any place of the parents’ choosing. If there are nature spirits to be honored, then this is done before the ceremony.
The circle can be made out of flowers or stones, or tree branches depending on the season. An altar is a focus for the attention of guests and could be of wood or stone, decorated with seasonal flowers and plants.
A single celebrant usually leads the rite to maintain its energy and ensure the magic holds. The leading celebrant makes the Call for Peace in the four cardinal directions and then declares the purpose of the rite. Then the parents speak their vows to the child, announce the name and present the baby with a gift, like a family heirloom or a symbol.
The symbol could be a consecrated stone or a metal item. The child is held up to the four cardinal directions by the parents and blessed with the signs of the earth, fire, air, and water. In pagan naming ceremonies, the infant is not usually committed to any deity or bound to any particular path because he must find his own spiritual way.
Origin of Birthdays
Did you know that it was pagans who first celebrated birthdays?
We know the ancient Greeks believed that each baby was protected by a spirit that coincided with their birth date. The Greeks often baked moon-shaped cakes adorned with lighted candles as a tribute to the Goddess Artemis.
Similarly, many indigenous people marked their birthday by the moon phase and stars.
Actually marking the day of birth did not come until people started using calendars. Many pre-Christian calendars existed. Sumerians developed a lunar calendar and the Egyptian calendar was based on the sun. The Mayans developed a two-year solar calendar.
As Your Baby Grows
It’s also never too soon to start thinking about how your baby will be growing up into a pagan child, either. Exposing your toddler to pagan culture will certainly be easier if you already have the books, toys and tools. One day, they will thank you for that.
Your child will also be grateful that you introduced them to magic so soon, and so well. Make sure to tell the guest about your baby’s astrological sign and your family’s specific patrons too. This way, any magical gifts will be suited to the child’s personal spirituality.
A good party is also a good chance for you and your spouse to unwind a little, and we pagans love to party. Invite your friends and family. Obviously, don’t go crazy. But have a ball nonetheless!
You may also be interested in our article about pagan weddings.
What About Adopted Children?
Just like all other people, many pagans prefer to adopt children than give birth, and that’s totally okay. Whatever the reason, adoption is a perfectly acceptable part of pagan traditions.
Adopted children are children like any other, both legally and religiously. Although our heritage is important to us, we aren’t bigots.
Paganism welcomes all.
Many of us converted, too and we’ve been beautifully received and accepted. We should do the same for all our children!
What’s so great about pagan religions are that they’re adjustable. Why not celebrate the baby’s adoption day, as that’s how they joined your family? Adjust the rituals as you see fit.
Go ahead as usual with the naming ceremony and dedication. Often, parents choose the legal names for their adopted children, especially babies. You can and should do the same for their pagan name.
Likewise, your adopted baby still should be introduced into your community and household like any biological child. It can even be more important to ensure your adopted child is properly welcomed and dedicated so they adjust better into their new, pagan home.
Take Away
A pagan blessing or naming ceremony is a beautiful way to welcome a new baby into the world and the wider community. It is up to you to decide how it should be conducted and who will be present, depending on the tradition you follow.
Paganism has diverse and meaningful ways to celebrate your baby’s birth. Our focus here is ensuing their health, both spiritual and material, and introducing them into our unique community.
The primary objective is to welcome, bless and protect the new baby and ward them against negative energies.
Author, Katherine Fox, is our editor and one of our writers. She is currently raising a pagan husband and three children. They love getting outside and exploring the natural world. Katherine’s heritage is Native American (Northern Cheyenne and Arapaho) and Irish and she writes about family fun pagan activities, Native American and Celtic traditions.
Katherine has been a Baby Earth customer for several years.