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From: bv (no email)
Date: Thu Sep 04 2003 - 16:47:07 EDT
According to old books, maybe you want to remember that christening a boat
do not come from Christianism but from pagan traditions. With time,
champagne (or, in the old times, any drink used for special celebrations,
among them, wine and rum) replaced human sacrifices done by the Vikings (Hi,
Arild!), usually slaves or war prisoners. Therefore, it is a symbol of
blood. Later in the Middle Age, priests were invited to such ceremonies and
sprayed some holy water over the "bloody" wine. The idea was to give the
boat a first contact with "liquid elements", made and loved by men before it
would go to the water.
Champagne has been used only since 18th century. The tradition has spread
from boats to babies (and not the other way around).
You want to "baptize" the boat before giving it to the sea, it can't be in
the water. The boat,then, should slide in the water stern first. If it stops
on the way, it's considered a bad presage, and, of course, it's worse if the
bottle does not break on the first try.
When I was a kid, national hymn was played "live" by the municipal fanfare,
at least for the fishing boats. I can't remember if it was the same for
pleasure crafts. When people would applause at the first splash, somebody
would ring the bell on the boat, long and loud, like in a church. And I
can't remember if we were throwing flowers or rice, but I've seen a few old
pictures with the boats surrounded by thousand of roses floating around the
hull.
Btw, the word "baptism" comes from the Greek baptismos : immersion. It was a
nautical term before anything else...
Ben
>Does anyone have info on christening a boat?
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