Cutting the Yarn

Today when I was hanging out with my family, the little neighbor baby made her first steps. It was awesome. Then all of sudden there was lots of commotion and her mom and my mamma started getting stuff like scissors and yarn, I was confused. It was later explained to me that it was a Kazakh tradition to tie the baby’s legs together and cut them loose as a ceremony for first steps. It is the second big ritual in a child’s life, after the first hair cut, performed by the grandmother. They asked me if I would be the one to cut the string which I figured was an honor but didn’t really get it at the time. Again, later I found out that it was an incredible honor and that the family has someone cut the yarn who they want the baby to follow in their footsteps and grow up to be like. I was so grateful when I found this out. And thought that if that is so, I definitely have some advice for this kid of things not to do - which may or may not involve gasoline/groundhogs and dumpsters.