Nolan's Nwaran (Nepali Naming Ceremony)
Nwaran is a spiritual naming ceremony. It's celebrated 11 days after birth when baby receives a name that is different from his birth certificate name. In Nepal, this is considered baby's real name, the birth certificate name being baby's social name.
My parents consulted with a hindu priest in Nepal. Based on the date and time of Nolan's birth, referencing the lunar calendar, the priest provided us with the first syllable of his name - "gh". We came up with Gham which means sunshine. It's perfect on so many levels - he's our sunshine, of course, the cold New England weather turned a corner the very day of his birth, and our world wouldn't exist without the sun (not in the same way anyway).
Nolan's birth certificate name is Nolan Cass Bendel. Yes, we all have different last names (another post!), his being a literal combination of Michael's (Benson) and mine (Poudel). Nolan's Auntie Andrea came up with it!
Nolan is a multi racial, multi cultural baby, so we are trying to consider both histories in everything to we do. Because Gham is a Nepali first time, we used Benson for his nwaran last name. He is both Nolan Cass Bendel and Gham Benson.
Michael did a great job leading the whole puja (honor, worship, spiritual celebration) with direction from my mom. Doesn't he look so official?
The Poudels and Bensons welcome you to the world, Nolan!