A Thread Ceremony - Munja

As I sat, on the couch watching the rituals of my nephew's thread ceremony ,came to me many
thoughts , actually questions.

Today, a kid's world is filled with Tom and Jerry, Diego, Nick JR, Power Rangers ..
Where does this Thread ceremony fit in ?

My nephew , sitting besides my sister and her husband who were actually performing the rituals, was keeping himself entertained by making monkey faces to my son and many other similar mischievous moves. Sitting glued to one place seemed to be an herculean task. I know it's a difficult task for most of 8 yr olds..nothing wrong with it.


So, What is this Thread Ceremony , why and when is it performed ?
To put make it short, MANY MANY DECADES ago, education of the kids would start after this ceremony was perfomed, typically after attaining the age of 8. The kid would leave his home and go to a "boarding school", Gurukul as it was know then .
He would stay there for the next 12 yrs.
The kid was expected to give a helping at that school and get knowledge in return.

But here, my nephew knew the concept but, he also knew that he would not be going to any
Gurukul /boarding school and be away from his parents. Tension Free !

I tried to tease him by telling him that you will be sent to a boarding school but he was
sure that it would never happen and he would still play with his Power Rangers toys and
watch those cartoons sitting on the cosy couches of his cosy home.


Imagine the dialogs between mother and son of those day
son, now on , Guru is the one you should look at for all the guidance
son, serve your Guru well so that you are blessed with abundance of knowledge
son, you have to take care of yourself hereon and many such notes.
The son too must be realizing the gravity, that suddenly from tomorrow the loving cover
is going to go away and I am not going to have things going my way..
What must be going through their minds ? Tension, Anxiety , Scare

In todays world -
mother would rather tell her son -
get ready for competition , now a days i see 3-4 yr old kids competing with each other..
competition is good but not at that age.. they are so innocent
get ready for the loads of studies, demand for performance
get ready to face the stress
get ready for the traffic
get ready to stand in queues for every thing you want, right from getting into a bus,train,
buying rice, to getting ration card, admission to your desired college , jobs

But all this too calls for the parents to start providing for their education , it's started
becoming costlier by the day.

But the other thing to note is that now a days a lot of money too is spent on such ceremonies.

Let me leave with a thought- would spend a handsome amount on thread ceremony or would you prefer to invest for his future consumption.