About one billion people live in India/Most of these people are Hindu/The Hindu religion is also a way of life /In the Hindu religion, there are special ceremonies for important time in a person's life/There are sixteen ceremonies in all/ For each ceremony there is a special fire, and priests say prayers and read from a special book/One of these ceremonies is choosing a name for a baby/
The birth of a baby is a happy time in a Hindu family/ Soon after the baby is born, the parents wash the baby and write the word om on the baby's tongue/ They write the word in honey with a pen of gold/Om is a special word in the Hindu religion/ Hindus say this word over and over again when they are praying/
Twelve days after the baby is born, a priest visits the family to name the baby/The priest makes a horoscope for the baby/To make this horoscope, the priest writes down where the stars and planets were at the time the baby was born/From this ,he reads the baby's future and suggests a good name for the baby/Many children have names of Hindu gods and goddesses or have names with other religious meaninds/
At the ceremony, there are guests/The mother holds the baby/The father is on one side/In front of them, there is a plate with rice on it/The father uses a long, thin piece of gold to write the name of the family god the baby's name, and the date of birth in the rice/Then he says the baby's name in the baby's right ear/The priest then blesses the baby/He also blesses candies and food and then passes them to the guests/This ends the ceremony of giving a name to a baby/