Asian Sitting The Month

Hello :3 Bonjour ou Bonsoir. Ni Hao. Xin chào

How are you? Ni hao ma? Comment êtes-vous? Bạn khỏe không?

I’m Gne admin 🙂 That’s all the language Gne has so far. My First language is Vietnamese. My second language is French. My third language is English and the last is Chinese Mandarin Pinyin which Gne is self-studying. If you would like to learn more about Gne admin background, please click on this link. The link will open a new tab in your browser and lead you into “About Gne admin” post.

And now: Welcome to my first blogging post :3

Actually, Gne wants to write this post and put it in the “blog” category because it’s celebration.

This website HWA has been one month old!

Yeah Gne admin!!!

One-month-old…not a big deal for the celebration -> You might have that idea, but If you were Gne, you would do the same action. Are you website designer? Are you majored in the computer science? If not, one month old website like this is a milestone.

If you scan “about Gne admin” post and then come back here, then thank you again 🙂

Gne background is just normal student. Gne didn’t go to the College for specific discipline, even Gne went to the University in my home country with the purpose waiting until the moving D-day. Even with the current situation in Seattle, Gne still doesn’t know which discipline Gne should follow in the College.

Hihi Just a little bit about the background, we should continue, shall we?

Just like a normal human newborn baby. As the baby is growing up, the marked point would be the moment when the newborn can turn -> the time as the newborn can crawl -> the moment the baby says the first word-> the moment the baby can stand up in the feet without parents/anything support-> the period when the baby can stand properly and start to walk the first step-> then, one-year-old-> and so on. Almost parents do remember those special moments.

This HWA is my spiritual baby :3 If you are artistic, you will share a similar feeling with Gne. All your artistic works are your babies. You protect your babies and revise for a better version.

And sorry in advance for all newly moms who accidently click on this post because it might not give you the information you seek.

However, Gne put the title post in purpose because Gne would like to borrow the culture idea – Asian Sitting the Month. As Gne just mentioned above, this HWA is my one-month-old baby and all Asians share the similar culture about the celebration for baby.

First, let’s get to know with Chinese “Sitting the Month”

China country has more than 5000 years historical. This culture “Sitting the Month” might be existed since Chinese people can record the knowledge and pass down through generations to generations.

In some Chinese rural areas, the citizens still keep this culture. The Chinese Mandarin of this event is
“Zuo Yue Zi ” -> it is the pinyin and the choke ” 坐月子 “. Some modern new moms feel “uncomfortable” when they must follow the culture. And this culture idea spreads all the Chinese ethic in the worlwide.

When Gne googled a little bit about it, Gne across one Chinese-Singapore new mom blog. She shared that she was regretted that she did follow the tradition “Zuo Yue Zi”. There are a few reasons for her regret such as the moment she was giving born was in August when it’s the most beautiful time in Summer. The hot weather and temperature urge her to get out of the house for some fresh air. Or the basic restrictions from the tradition.

It was like a prison since according to CHinese tradition “Zuo Yue Zi”, the new mom and the new baby DO NOT ALLOW TO GO OUT. THEY NEED TO STAY HOME IN ONE MONTH FOR REST AND RECOVERY.

Besides that golden rule, there are a few more additions such as

• The new mom needs to do the minimum amount of time for a shower and personal hygiene. The elders are afraid that the new mom might get a cold-> therefore, it would have bad effects to her body-> as the consequence, her breast milk might have a bad quality as well. -> it might transfer the cold into the new baby-> it might affect to the baby general health when he/she is growing up later.
• The new mom doesn’t allow to relax her mind by watching TV or something similar to that. (Gne wonders how about listening to the radio or her favorite music? how about devices with Internet?) -> for this activity, the Chinese elders say that the new mom needs to completely rest for her body restore after the super hard time of giving birth. Basic, Elders expect the new mom stay in the bed most of the time.
• The new mom will be adviced by female experienced relatives such as her own mother, her mother-in-law, her aunts, her aunt-in-law, her grandmother, her grandmother-in-law, her little/older sister, and her little/older sister-in-law. The common point for the guess is WOMEN ONLY. They will pass down their own experiences to the new mom. (Sorry that Gne doesn’t know the detail since Gne is opposite gender -.- They would not allow the new mom’s husband to stay nearby according to the tradition. Gne doesn’t know. When it happens, Gne will share about it. Haha it’s too long from now!)
• The guess, who visit the new mom and the new baby, to be expected, bring some gifts. The traditional gifts for this culture “Zuo Yue Zi” are red eggs plus some gingers. Other gifts choices are baby essentials (baby clothes, baby diapers, baby toys, etc…) or some Chinese health herbs for the new mom’s recovery or some gifts for luck.

As you imagine, the new mom is easy to have a depression since she will stay in the home in completely 30 days. For some home-lovers people, they don’t complain at all. They might, in contrast, enjoy the time with her new baby and receive the care of others. (Haiz~ the husband will be ignored by the guess. Maybe, he would be ignored by his own wife too -.- since she has one more important person to take care of. )

Sorry for the new mom since Gne is a male, and Gne doesn’t marry yet, so…Gne doesn’t have any solution for your depression during the “Zuo Yue Zi”…However, thank you because it gives Gne an idea that in the future, if Gne gets married to a Chinese lady, Gne should be the one who takes care of my future wife, and Gne needs to entertain her during the “Zuo Yue Zi” even the elders’ women don’t allow Gne.

And for Viet Nam, it derives from Chinese culture as well, but it has some differences.

First, Vietnamese don’t emphasize about the time, one-month-old. Vietnamese usually have a big celebration when the newborn reaches the one-year-old. Gne asked my mom about “Sitting the month”, but my mom replied back that do we have that? We only have a one-year-old celebration -.- (that’s it,period)

Second, the way Vietnameses celebration the tradition “Sitting the Month” also is differents. Here are a few points significant:

• Any relatives can visit the new mom and the new baby, no regard the gender even just after a month the new mom deliveried.
• The guess don’t have to have a gift when they visit the new mom and the newborn
• If the guess do have the idea for a gift, the modern relatives usually deliver a red envelope -.- It’s similar to the red envelope money in the Spring Festival – New Lunar Year in the Asians. For old-fashion style relatives, they bring some baby essentials and health medicine for the new mom
• And then the host – usually the new parents – offers a small party for the guess.

After, the host askes the guess to join the ceremony. It’s a small activity, but it has the cultural meaning. It’s kind of the prediction for the newborn baby future career.

Here how the ceremony looks like.

• first step: prepare some physical goods that symbol for the career. For example direct from Gne’s ceremony and Gne little sister’s ceremony. My mom said that they and relatives prepare a bowl of small sticky rice (xôi nếp trắng), a clay toy, a mirror, a stethoscope, normal toy, etc.
• second step: place those physical goods above randomly
• Third step: place the newborn or put the baby in the steady sit position where the baby can see clear those physical goods
• Fourth step: get the baby distraction-free from other things except for those physical goods in front
• Fifth step: count 1,2,3 or pray for the GODs before letting the baby crawl forward and choose. Here, it would be the last step of the ceremony. Since then, the guess plus the new parents just wait for the newborn to pick up one or more than one physical goods.

For Gne own ceremony, my mom said Gne was picked up two things: a small bowl of sticky rice and in another hand, it was a color clay toy.

For Gne’s little sister, she picked up a mirror and a hairbrush.

According to the old culture, those things has the symbole.

• For Gne, a small bowl of sticky rice and clay toy-> means Gne would do about agriculture. However, it’s not haha Right now, Gne doesn’t have any interest with the agriculture, but Gne understands and know about how is the hard work. Maybe in previous life, Gne’s carrier was a farmer? 🙂
• For my little sister, a mirror and hairbrush….it symbols for a beauty, right? Yeah, it is, but a little different. My little sister is beautiful with the tomboy style haha. She doesn’t wear make up, but my little sister pays attention about the clothings and other beauties.

Therefore, those physical goods has a different angles and meanings-> it’s totally depend on human who interpret it. Just like Astrology, Astrology is always truth-> only the astrologers who might misinterpret.

Therefore, what Gne admin would like to celebrate this HWA “Sitting the month”?

This HWA site function likes a blog, and it contains some business characteristics. For other blogs, they usually share about their normal life. Do they need to make their schedule? what topics do they share? and many questions behind the scenes that we usually don’t know about it.

What Gne admin has done behind the scenes:

• Bought this website domain name and the copyright in legally way.
• Hosting and secured with WA (if you don’t know about WA, please check this post)
• Find the theme
• Set up the site
• Cleaning up a little bit unwanted things
• Create a contact form.
• Create categories, new menu, and navigation
• Brainstorm what Gne will write in this site.
• Research more information to support the points in the posts
• Writing process
• Adding images, external/internal/affiliate links/videos
• Design a few image/picture/photo in the post’s head (they call feature image of the post)-> upload it
• Let other search engines such as Google, Bing, Yahoo, etc. know about this website

Gne admin sets a short-term goal from now until the New International Astrological Year comes 🙂 Do you know which day is it, by the way? 🙂

• From now until that day, Gne would like to insist to publish two posts per week.
• With that frequency, Gne still needs to brainstorm about the topics. Gne would like to share some Astrological knowledge before we jump into 12 Horoscopes with a deeper level – Astrology.
• Gne would like to draw a map, navigation for this ongoing-develop site-> just for you to have a clearer image and the road line.
• Gne would start to engage some social media.

So far, Gne has those things only. If Gne remembers something, Gne will update later.

Thank you for your time to join in this HWA one-month-old celebration XD thank you, thank you, thank you!

P/S disclaimer: In this post, there are some external/ internal links and affiliate links. External/Internal links lead you into one more post right in this site or open one new tab of your browser-> then lead you into other authority websites. About the affiliate links, if you click on it-> then, it will lead you into merchants websites such as Amazon site or other merchants-> if you place an order from it-> later, the merchant will share a small commission with Gne. It’s a deal between Gne admin and the merchants. You don’t pay extra anything.