Christenings and Birthdays.
There are occasions when family and friendly reunions of the pleasantest character may be enjoyed. Christening ceremonials among our superior citizens are becoming more and more beautiful each year in New York. The formality which is most in favor is the giving of a reception; the hours are fixed from three or four o’clock until six p. m. It is equally proper to write the invitations, or to order them engraved in script.
The engraved form is scarcely varied from the following:
Mr. and Mrs. William Ashton
request the honor of your presence at the
Christening Ceremony
of their son [or daughter] at five o’clock,
Thursday, December sixth.
Reception from four to six o’clock.
No. 1624 W. Eleventh Street.
This card calls for an early response.
At these parties, flowers ornament the house tastefully. The guests all arrive in reception or visiting toilets, before five o’clock, and meet the host and hostess just as they would at any reception.
There may be a band of music, or a pianist and a quartette of singers, to entertain the guests.
Sometimes professional musicians are employed. A temporary font is arranged in a prominent place in the room, and on a small round table is placed a silver goblet or bowl, or one of crystal. The edge of the pedestal is often hung with trailing flowers.
The child is brought to the parents, who stand by the font, and the sponsors join them. If it be a girl, its selected guardians are usually two young ladies, who are dressed in white and who arrange themselves one at each side of the father and mother, and a hymn or chant is sung. The clergyman performs the rite according to the formalities of his own established church; more music follows, and then a benediction. Directly after this, congratulations are offered to the father and mother, and the child is admired and shortly afterward removed.
Refreshments are offered as at any afternoon entertainment.
Children’s birthdays are celebrated more and more after the customs of Europeans. A little feast is made for the child, to which its companions are invited, but the invitations seldom extend beyond a number that may be seated at table. The feast is dainty but not rich, and with a pretty cake in which may be placed as many toy wax-candles as there are years in the age of the young host. They are already lighted when the young people enter the room. Plays follow the supper. Guests are not expected to make presents.
Among the elders of a family the yearly return of the birthday is seldom celebrated except by his or her own kinspeople. The twenty-first birthday of a young man is often made an occasion for a dinner, or a party, but a lady’s age is not thus publicly celebrated. When the lady or gentleman becomes very old, delightful attentions are often bestowed upon them by their young friends, and by the companions of their youth. Flowers, letters of congratulation, cards of inquiry and respect, gifts that will interest, breakfast or dinner parties, and receptions, are considered proper for such celebrations.