Unlocking (custom)

Required preparation:

1, the first thing is to prepare the offerings, like all kinds of pastries, fruits and dishes.

2. The lock, which needs to be brought around the child's neck during the unlocking ceremony, along with an iron chain, with which the ends of the chain are locked together.

Need to pay attention to:

1, the three people who open the lock refers to the elders in the family such as uncle, godfather, and to note that the need for three different surnames.

2, in the child to open the lock to read on the three words: "one open, smart and clever; two open, academic success; three open, full of wealth!"

3. After unlocking the door, the parents should give a gift to the "godmother" to thank her for all the trouble she has taken for the child's growth.

The custom of unlocking the door is mainly passed down in the northern region, mainly for boys who grow up to about 12 years old to carry on the enlightenment of the movement, with can open the shackles of the boy's mind, so that they become smarter and more beautiful blessings.

Customs

Northern regions, the child's 12th birthday is commonly known as the "round lock", is the adults of the child is about to enter the teenage years of a blessing. Also known as "open lock", "soul lock", "round goat", it is a birthday ceremony organized specifically for children up to 12 years old. This custom is very common.

The purpose of unlocking the door is to open the chains of wisdom to those children who are about to become adults, so that this age group of children from the obscurity of early childhood to free themselves, step into the juvenile mileage, towards the direction of wisdom and intelligence, towards the direction of adult success, so that the child feels that he or she has been separated from childhood, to produce the belief of joining the ranks of adults, to be self-reliant, and to get rid of the mentality of dependence.

Today, this kind of unlocking activity has been simplified, simplified to the whole family get together, to be unlocked child's neck to hang a lock, and then in front of the whole family, by the uncle to open the lock on the neck of the locks, dinner, happy to celebrate the unlocking of the locks, the unlocking of the activity that is declared to be the end of it. The child seems to have gone to another realm, and the spirit quickly gets a kind of transcendence.

Baidu Encyclopedia - Unlocking (Folk Customs in Northern China)