Last Sunday was Lilla’s Naming Day. It was a beautiful celebration in our back garden, a family gathering of no religious significance, unless you count the appointing of two godparents. Lilla wore the same long white christening gown and lace bonnet that both her sisters had worn. Every ceremony is different of course – for one thing, Lilla was the first child to keep her bonnet in place, rather than yanking it sideways and cramming handfuls into her mouth. But what everyone will remember most about Lilla’s naming day are the raspberries.

Our celebrant, Orna, planned a lovely service, and Becca and Carly acted as her assistants, while parents and godparents stood aside, taking turns to hold Lilla who was intent on somersaulting onto the lawn. After Orna welcomed everybody, Becca recited a poem… and that’s when it started. Obviously we had made a tactical error in not officially including Harry in the service.

“May all your wishes come true,” Becca read out, slowly and loudly as she had practised. “May you always do for others and let others do for you…”

“Tthhhwwwpff!” said Harry from the swings, spit shooting from his mouth.

“May you build a ladder to the stars and climb on every rung…”

“Pthwww-ppth!” chimed in little cousin Aiden, not to be outdone.

“May you grow to be righteous,” Becca continued bravely. “May you grow up to be true…”

“Pppthwwpth! Tthhhwwwpff!” chorused the boys before collapsing into peals of laughter. Yes, I’m so glad that out of all the naming ceremonies, this is the one we videotaped.

After Becca’s poem, Orna spoke of the wisdom and beauty of little children (“pffthwpth!”), the joyous responsibilities of a godparent (“tthwwwppth!”) and the happiness and strength of a united family (“pthwww-ppth!”). Then it was Carly’s turn to recite a poem.

Carly displayed a professional instinct to work with her audience, pausing expectantly at the end of each line for Harry and Aiden to blow their raspberries at appropriate points of her performance:

My Baby Sister (pffthwpth!)
Two tiny feet that wave in the air (tthwwwppth!)
Two tiny hands that tug at my hair (ppthwwpp!)
Cute bottom for patting (thwpffth!)
Adorable face,
A bundle of joy
To love and em-(pffthwpth!)-brace.

They outsmarted her at the end, though. Next, Orna read a blessing, while Becca and Carly and two other little girls scattered rose petals on Lilla. (Well, there were various interpretations of the verb “to scatter”. The closest we got to the traditional meaning was “to dump”.) As Becca took handfuls of white rose petals from the first silver bowl – symbolising innocence – Harry lost interest in his raspberry competition with Aiden, and climbed down from the swing. Maybe he thought the girls were about to eat some intriguing new type of biscuit.

Ryan crouched on the ground with Lilla on his knee so Becca could drop her rose petals onto Lilla. Then it was Carly’s turn. Harry tried to snatch at her bowl as she took it from the table, but when he saw what she was doing with this mysterious new food, he decided a better strategy would be to kneel down beside Daddy. As Carly’s yellow petals for friendship tumbled down, Harry scooped them into his mouth. Real rose petals might have been tastier, but these were extremely realistic paper imitations. Harry quickly spat them onto the grass, as Jessica – eldest daughter of Lilla’s godmother – scattered the pink petals of love and compassion. Last of all, Jessica’s little sister Madison tipped her bowl of red petals – for passion – over Lilla’s head. Harry nibbled cautiously at a red rose petal but it didn’t taste much better than the yellow ones so he set it down on the grass.

And then the service was over – we had officially welcomed Lilla into our family and we were ready for a barbecue lunch. It might sound as if Lilla’s siblings monopolised her special day, but Lilla did hold her place as star of the show, without poems, raspberries or imitation rose petals. For the entire morning, she smiled upon anybody who looked her way, she cuddled into the arms of whoever held her, and most impressive of all, she kept her bonnet on.

Do you have special family ceremonies?