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On 22 Jan 2000 we did a Rice-Feeding Ceremony for Lydia. We had thought for a while that this would be a good opportunity to attempt a contextualised traditional Newar ceremony. It would also be a good opportunity to feast our Newar friends who have so often invited us to their functions. It would help build friendship and trust.

According to Newar tradition the ceremony must take place in the baby’s 5th, 7th or 9th month. Lydia was already showing interest in solid food so we felt we should do it earlier rather than later. It must be in the 5th month and only two weeks were left of that. We got together with our close friends Ravi and Nirmala and selected a date. The date was chosen as being auspicious according to the Nepali calendar.

Cultural Context
Newar life is regulated by a series of socio-religious life-cycle rituals or rites of passage. The classical Hindu way of viewing these is in the sense of a sacrament. It is important to the Newar that ones life-cycle rituals (Nw. samskara) are done properly to ensure a positive accumulation of karma for the next life. This is seen sometimes as a work for ones salvation and at others as just another ritual one must do because it has always been done that way. In general, though, they are taken very seriously. This is not to say that they are onerous for much pleasure is found in the ceremony and especially in the feasting that accompanies them.

It is important that at such rites a number of ritual specialists are called for their services. Newars are divided as to those who call a Brahman priest and those that call a Buddhist priest. But a priest is essential for all. All clean castes call either a Brahman or Buddhist priest. An astrologer (Josi) is consulted for the most auspicious time for the ceremony and at times assists the Brahman priest in the ritual. At certain rites a tantric priest (Karmacarya) is called as well to worship alongside the Brahman. A woman of the Barber caste (Nauni) is called to pare the toenails of all the household either the previous day or the morning of the rite. In the past the Barber himself would also come to shave the heads of all the males of the household. These are acts of purification. Usually in these rituals a special part is played by the mother’s brother and the father’s sister. Being of a different family they are not subject to the rules of purity that the household of the initiate is subject to. The head of the household (thakali- the eldest male) and his wife (the thakali naki(n)) are in charge of the proceedings. In the typical Newar joint family these are the grandparents of the smaller children.

The social importance of these events is huge. All auspicious events such as these life-cycle rituals are times for feasting. The Newar feast is an important opportunity for the household and wider agnatic (patrilineal) family to get together along with the affines- the married-out daughters, mother’s brothers, father’s sisters and their families. These feasts are the cement for the society. They act as models for and models of the society as a whole. Values of seniority, equality of status and respect for proper roles are expressed in a highly visible and formalised way.

Contextualization
The contextualization of the gospel in Newar society and culture remains a major need. The approach of mission community and native evangelists and pastors has, up to the present, been to repudiate anything that might be seen to be the slightest bit ‘Hindu’. Any accommodation to Hindu forms is seen as compromise. The new believer in Christ from the Newar community is faced with the extremely stressful problem of how to fit into the Christian community while trying to remain in their community of birth with all the social responsibility that entails. Church and mission leaders have largely been insensitive to this tension but rather have tended to lay down the law as to what is acceptable or not if one is to be considered a ‘real Christian’. The result of this has largely been to alienate newbelievers from their own communities making them dependent on the church community and its leadership during important life crises such as marriage and death. The Newar community sees such an attitude as a threat to its very existence and largely ostracises those who make such a stand.

It is our view that this approach is fatally flawed for two reasons: Firstly, the weight of New Testament theology emphasises that the regeneration of the Spirit is an inward spiritual phenomenon that finds its outward manifestation in a conversion of character. The mark of the disciple of Christ is not a cross or fish or a particular use or nonuse of makeup. It is love. The disciple of Christ, then, must not repudiate cultural forms that are neutral just because they are considered somehow to be Hindu.

Secondly, the emphasis of apostolic teaching was clearly on a person remaining in his or her own community after experiencing the grace of God. They were not to change communities. They were to serve the Lord in the particular circumstances that they were in before they came to know Christ (1Co 7:17-24).

In view of these principles the approach we take in bringing the gospel to the Newar people must be one that takes seriously the social and cultural context in which Newars live. Life-cycle rituals are just one important area that needs a thoughtful, creative response. All societies have life-cycle rituals. They are not in themselves evil and in fact have a positive function for the individual and in the society. But there are certain aspects of the rituals that we cannot enter into with integrity. We cannot, for instance, do a ritual that involves the worship of an idol. How we approach such a delicate situation demands great sensitivity however. It may be that a disciple we are helping is a junior member of a household who does not have much of a say in how the household is run. So if they are asked to do some ritual that involves some idol and they go ahead and do so out of respect to their elders while making it quite clear that they find no joy in so doing and that, in their view, it does no spiritual good for anyone we must not judge them for that (cf. 2Ki 5:17-19). The attitude we must do our best to inculcate in our followers is the attitude of Paul who made it quite clear that ‘an idol is nothing’ (1Co 8:4).

The Christ-bhakta (devotee of Christ) should be encouraged to see life-cycle rituals as important social events. They will do nothing to gain favor with God. They have no salvific merit. But they are times for celebration. So if the Christ-bhakta we are helping is the head of his household he should be taught to make a creative alternative to the traditional event. The family should get together and invite their relatives and friends just as Abraham did when Isaac was weaned (Ge 21:8). He has the freedom (relatively) to discard those elements of the ritual that are overtly designed as meritorious religious acts. Any departure from the time honored norms will be a subject for discussion in the neighborhood. We do not think it wise to try to take on all the values and beliefs of our, as yet, unbelieving relatives and friends at once. So one might want to choose the auspicious day for the event, as we did with Lydia’s Rice-Feeding Ceremony, by consulting the calendar rather than simply choosing any convenient day. Days and seasons are nothing to us for whom every day is a day of grace. But we may, like Paul, place ourselves under the law (in this case Hindu law) in order to win those who are under the law (1Co 9). It is important to remember at this point that it is not whether we observe auspicious days or not that marks us out as true lovers of Christ, but a changed character.

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