Naming Ceremony Among The Ewes

HOW NAMING CEREMONY IS DONE IN THE EWE LAND (THAT’S PEOPLE FROM THE VOLTA REGION IN GHANA) .
IT IS ALSO KNOWN IN THEIR LOCAL LANGUAGE AS “VIHEHEDEGO”.
The people of Volta Region in Ghana do their naming ceremony on the 8th day after the baby is born.
They do this on the 8th day. Because, when a new baby is born, they believe the baby is a stranger and the child may decide to return  to wherever child is coming from. The 8th day will fall on the exact day the child was born. So if up to that day the child is still alive then, that day will be the child first name. eg. When the child is born on Friday and he is a boy, his first name is Kofi, and if she is girl she will be called Afi or Afua. On this day, early morning the elderly members of both family, that is the father and mother side of the baby will come together to name the child. It is done early morning on the said day, that is around 5:30am to 6am. During this period, the child will be brought out from the room for the first time without any dress. It is like that because they believe the child is a stranger, so they don’t need to put dress on him or her since the child was born, according to their tradition. Because the baby is a stranger, they don’t need to treat the new born as one of them.  And before the child will be brought out, the elders first pour libation to ask for  ancestral gods protection for the child and the parent. After the libation the child is brought out  ramped in cloth for the first time.  Next  the one who poured the libations will take the child and place the child on ground naked at the entrance of the room, under the roof on the bear floor and pour water on the roof top for it to drop on the baby on the floor to teaches the child when he goes out and there is  rain he or she should not be afraid of it, It is normal with life so one of the elderly women will run  and  pick up the baby after the water has fallen on baby. There after, the father of the baby will mentioned the name of the child to the elderly person performing the ceremony with a bottle of local gine. The elderly person will pour libations with some of the drink again and mention the child’s name three times to the gathering.  The elder then dipped his fourth finger into the drink and put into the mouth of the child for three times and  after that he will do the same thing to the with water too. This is done to let the distinguish between good and bad or truth and lairs. Everybody will be saved with the drink and the child name will be mentioned to them individually. After this the father will come with his present to the baby and the mother and it contains pan, bucket, sponge, towel, pomade, powder comb, Beas and dressers for the baby, half piece of cloth for the mother and two yards of cloth for the baby the one they will used to carry him or her at back. After the fathers presentation, the mother in law that is the grandmother of the child (father’s  mother) will also bring her gifts to the baby, that is beags and two yards pieces of kente cloth to be used for carrying the baby at back. So after all this, then the baby will be taken back to the room and dressed up before bringing him  out again. And for now the loved ones and well wishes can come in with gifts and some merry making will go on in the house.
        It is written by Dzreh E. A. M. Epiphania