Kids First Haircut

Kids First Haircut Biography

Source(google.com.pk)
Baby's first haircut--what fun! Some parents do it themselves, wielding a small scissors and gingerly cutting into their little one’s tiny locks. Others go for all the bells and whistles of a kiddy salon: Chairs that look like fire engines! Cartoons on multiple screens! Lollipops!

But it's not just Americans who have ritualized this event. A number of religions and cultures have prescribed rituals for first haircuts, including the Jews. At least since the 16th century, some Jewish communities have held special ceremonies to mark a little boy's first haircut. Historically, this event has been limited to Hasidic communities, which call it an upsheren ("sheer off" in Yiddish), and to some Sephardic communities, which call it a chalakah (Arabic for "haircut").

In Jewish tradition, the practice of a ritualized first haircut for boys is traced to Rabbi Isaac Luria, a 16th-century mystic in Safed, Israel. Luria's disciples reported in their writings that their revered teacher used to go to Meron--the supposed tomb of Rabbi Shimon ben Yohai (another great mystic)--to cut the hair of his young son "in accordance with the well-known custom."

Though this custom may have been "well-known" in Luria's circles, it interestingly does not appear in any other Jewish literature from before Luria's time or from his contemporaries. A later tradition cited in Luria's name associated the first haircut with the child's third birthday.

Historians are fuzzy about how and why the practice proliferated, but over time, the custom among Safed mystics became to take boys who had recently turned three to nearby Meron to give them their first haircut there. It also became the practice to hold these haircutting events on Lag Ba'omer, a minor Jewish holiday, which is celebrated as the anniversary of the death of Rabbi Shimon bar Yohai.

Every year on Lag Ba'omer thousands of Jews make a festive pilgrimage to Meron. This pilgrimage includes drinking, dancing, bonfires, and lots of haircuts for lots of boys who recently turned three.

The tradition is not limited to Meron, however. In many communities, the haircutting event for a three-year-old boy takes place at the child's home, in a synagogue, or in any other public space--from a pizza shop to a playground.

If you’ve ever seen Orthodox two-year-old boys running around with long ponytails

A number of explanations have been advanced for this practice of waiting three years. Some relate it to the law in the Bible, which stipulates that one is not allowed to eat fruit from a tree during the first three years after it's planted. Jewish tradition sometimes compares human life to the life of trees. Waiting three years to cut a child’s hair, like waiting three years to pick a tree's fruit, suggests the hope that the child will eventually grow tall like a tree and produce fruit: Knowledge, good deeds, and a family of his own.

Others believe, based on folk superstition, that demons like to prey on little boys, and snatch them from their parents. By letting a boy's hair grow long, it is possible to trick the demons into thinking the boy is in fact a girl.

In Hasidic and Sephardic communities, the upsheren is more than just a haircut; the event marks the beginning of a male child's formal Jewish education. To signify this, a little boy at his upsheren is often presented with a kippah (skullcap) and tzitzit (ritual fringes to wear under his clothes). So that his Torah study should always be sweet, a set of Hebrew letters are often covered with honey, and the child identifies the letters while licking off the honey.

Sometimes the hair that is cut off in the ceremony is weighed, and charity is given in that amount. Other customs include inviting each guest at the ceremony to snip off a lock of hair. The child then puts a penny in a tzedakah box for each lock as it’s cut. Sometimes the child sings a Hebrew song or recites the Shema prayer