In Telugu families, Seemantham (Baby Shower) is celebrated during pregnancy to welcome unborn baby to the family and to bless the mother-to-be with safe delivery. This event is held usually when the mother-to-be completes her 5th, 7th or 9th month of pregnancy. It will be performed by either in-laws or parents, or both, whosoever has this tradition running in their family. If the parents of pregnant lady choose to host this event, then her in-laws would bring in a new saree, sweets, and fruits to offer mom-to-be and vice-versa.
An auspicious time (Muhurtham) is chosen with the help of a priest to carry out this ritual. At least 5 women should be invited. On the day of the event, the pregnant lady is dressed up in a new saree with adoring jewelry and flowers. Then she offers prayer to almighty God before the festivities begin. The party hall (or the place wherever the event is celebrated) is usually well decorated with lots of flowers, balloons etc. Arrange all the sweets and fruits around the place where mom-to-be would be seated. You can play Seemantham songs in the background if you would like. You can find several Telugu Seemantham songs on Youtube.
When the ceremony begins, the mom-to-be gets seated in her throne chair and gets blessings from her mother/mother-in-law/elderly women first followed by other female guests. They offer kumkuma, Pasupu (applied to her feet by her mother), Gandham (sandalwood paste) for her Mangalyam. Then they put two bangles on each hand, place flowers in her hair, offer some sweets and fruits and bless her with Akshinthalu to have a safe delivery and a healthy baby.
After that mother/mother-in-law of a pregnant lady offers a new saree (with blouse piece) along with Pasupu, kumkuma, Gandham, bangles, flowers sweets/savory foods, fruits and Tthambulam to her. And then she blesses her with Akshinthalu for safe delivery. Sweets (like Chalimidi, laddoo etc) and fruits (like pomegranate, oranges etc) should be a total of 9 or 11 items. Mom-to-be will hold her saree pallu (Cheerakongu) in her lap when sweets/fruits/saree is offered. In Telugu, it is called “Vodi Nimpadamu”.
One or two women from the host family can offer Bottu and Gandham to the female guests during the event. Husband of pregnant lady can offer her kumkuma and bless her with Akshinthalu if he would like to. Lastly, the ladies will offer Mangala Harathi to the mom-to-be while singing traditional songs. At this point of time, she looks like a beautiful bride with all those colorful bangles and blooms. Most of all this ceremony makes her feel happy and would let her know how special it is to be a mom.
Once the main function is over, the mother-to-be and daddy-to-be can cut the cake and feed each other a piece of their baby shower cake. The cake cutting event is announced to all the guests so that they can gather together for the special moment. Traditional feast is served to the guests at the end of the event. After that, mom-to-be will offer a baby shower favor (baby toy) with a blouse piece, Thambulam, two fruits, 2-3 sweets like laddoo and Chalimidi, and hot like Bhoondhi in a goody bag to the guests.
You can plan for baby shower games in the interest of guests to make this event more joyful. Face painting and balloon twisting are anytime favorites for kids. Mehendi and nail paints are all time favorites for girls.
Preparations & Shopping Checklist:
- Find out auspicious day for the event from the priest
- Invite Guests to the ceremony
- Arrange the food for guests
- Reserve the party hall and throne chair
- Get the hall decorated
- Prepare the fruits and sweets baskets to offer to the mother-to-be.
- Shopping List: 5 varieties of sweets and 6 varieties of fruits including bananas, baskets, decoration items if any
- Prepare Chalimidi
- SL: Rice flour, jaggery, dry fruits, dry coconut chunks
- Arrange return gift bags (goody bags) for the guests.
- SL: Return gifts like baby toy, Thambulam sets, bananas, sweets like Chalimidi and laddoo, hot like Bhoondhi, blouse pieces, gift bags
- Prepare Pasupu, kumkuma, Mangala Harathi plate.
- Arrange the new Saree to be offered to the mom-to-be
- SL: New saree, blouse piece, Thambulam, glass bangles (red and green preferred)
- Prepare kumkuma, sandalwood paste (Gandham), Akshinthalu, flowers, bangles to offer to the mother-to-be
- SL: Bangles (2-4 dozens )
- Plan for baby shower games
- Use this link to find some full-filled baby-shower games. A couple of my favorite ones are:
- SL: Shop items required for games, Gifts for the winners
- Arrange face paintings, nail polish, Mehendi, balloon twisting, balloon shoot etc
- Order Cake
- SL: Cake and Knife
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