Today we celebrated our son’s okuizome (お食い初め), a Japanese tradition to ensure a long and healthy life. Like in most parts of Japan, we decided to do it on the boy’s 100th day since birth. Clad in Japanese attire, this was how excited he was before the ceremony:

Yoko had spent much of the day cooking all the right dishes for this occasion, using special ingredients that are not necessarily commonplace in Sweden but that we had managed to procure in various places over the last few days. Here’s how it turned out:

Traditionally, the meal consists of grilled sea bream, braised chicken, red sticky rice with beans, clear soup, pickles and vegetables. We added strawberries (for color) and the pastry that looks like a frog (because our boy’s nickname is “Little Frog”). Oh, and that smallest dish contains three pebbles.

Pebbles? — Yes, pebbles. In the ceremony, one of these small stones is picked up with the chopsticks, which are then brought to the infant’s mouth to signify a wish that he always be equipped with good strong teeth.

Yeah, that’s a bit weird. But this tradition stems from the 8th century, and a period that also gave rise to the freaking samurai, so I’m willing to cut it some slack.

After this, still with the chopsticks, the infant is offered, in turn, red rice, soup, rice again, a piece of fish, and finally rice for a third time. The whole procedure is repeated three times. Of course, the child doesn’t actually eat anything; the food merely touches his lips in a symbolic gesture. In this case, it’s an expression of hope that the child never want for food.

After all this excitement, our boy had some milk and a nap, and we adults ate of the ceremonial food.

おめでとう!