3rd of 16 sanskars – performed as a significance to give blessings to the expectant mother for a healthy development of the baby and a blissful motherhood.
Hindu religion has tremendously entrenched cultural ideologies that teach the essence of life in most different ways. There are a total of sixteen Sanskaras (sacraments) in religious texts for different phases of life.
Simant Sanskar is the third one out of all sixteen Sanskaras. And it is a ceremony that happens in the third trimester of pregnancy. It is also referred to as the baby shower ceremony, and with all the rituals and blessings, it’s celebrated to wish a safe delivery and healthy life.
Simant Sanskar or Simantonnayana word means parting the hair upwards. So In the Baby Shower ceremony, a pregnant woman sits on a soft chair, and her husband parts her hair three times according to rituals, and family members and friends bring gifts to congratulate. The modern approach of this ceremony is more like a baby shower where all the loved ones are gathering together to bring food items and gifts for the mom to be and baby. However, India has many diversified rituals and communities, And therefore, Simant Sankar also varies from community to community.
In some places parting the hair is not a part of the ceremony, and in some communities, it is done by some other member. The ideal motive behind all significant and minor rituals of Simant Sanskar is to make the pregnant woman happy and cheerful because Hinduism believes that the baby’s mental health starts growing after the fifth month.
So, in the last trimester, the Simant Sanskar ceremony helps the mother have happy emotions and positive thoughts, which can encourage the baby’s mental health.
