Even before a baby is born, Hindus perform rituals and recite prayers to protect the fetus from illness or harmful spirits. The mother eats only healthy foods to ensure the newborn's well-being.
In some families, the father performs a ceremony immediately after the birth. He dips a gold pen into a jar of honey and writes the sacred Sanskrit symbol, Om, onto the infant's tongue. The symbol, which stands for truth, is written in hope that the child will be honest and speak only the truth, which is sweet as honey. The symbol looks like this:
After a little more than a week, the baby's name is formally given. Usually the name of a favorite god or goddess is chosen and whispered into the child's ear.
Within the first few years of her life, a Hindu girl has an ear-piercing ceremony. Both boys and girls have their hair cut, symbolic of renewal and the shedding of wrongdoing in past lives.