Belief and taboo.

Placenta and umbilical cord seem to attract a lot of attention. Some says the powder as additive to beauty cream, some say for medicinal purposes and some say for witchcraft. But I really do not know about all those.

http://pregnancy.about.com/od/placenta/a/amazingplacenta.htm


Anyway, the placenta and the umbilical cord of my third grandson was taken away by his other grandfather to be washed and buried.

When I met him at his house on the 3rd day he said that he had buried all the stuff in his front lawn. I saw where it was buried. I somehow imagined that he had some sort of ceremony in burying the stuff. He must have a nice hole dug, deep enough but I do not know how deep, buried the stuff and covered it back carefully. He had an oil lamp installed on a post next to it, and he lit the oil lamp the whole night. He said probably in the olden days they did that to ensure that no wild animal dug up the stuff and take them away, to eat. And that is to be avoided, probably if that had happened something bad may occur to the child. I don’t know really what. But Malays are very careful not to loose the stuff, and the stuff must be treated with respect.

Why the front lawn? It seems that for a boy the stuff must be buried in the front lawn, to make him more adventurous. But for a girl it should be buried behind the kitchen, to ensure that she become a good wife, a good cook and a good mother. Again I do not know really the reasons behind all these practices.

I only hope and pray that with all the care taken, my 3rd grandson will grow up into a fine young man, a good husband, a good father and a good citizen.

He had a movie made about the ceremony, and hopefully he may download that to youtube.