Some say the ritual was handed down by the Snohomish tribe in the Northwest Pacific area.
They would put on a potlatch, a big banquet to celebrate a birth, and share a smoke or pipe.
By the way, many people hand out cigars whether the baby is male or female. Cheap cigars (really, really nasty cigars) are manufactured with wrappers proclaiming: "It's a boy!" or "It's a girl!"
Problem is tradition is to give out the cigar only when a boy is born. I believe the indian tradition is for males or females. Granted currently cigars can be given for both male and female babies. but that's mostly due to our progressive/modern mindset that says male and females must be treated in an equal light. Originally the tradition was cigar for males only. What I'm really interested in is the origin of the tradition.
Well, i remember such cigars back in the '50s, before "women's liberation" and "permissive" attitudes, so to be polite, i'll just say that i doubt your authority for such a remark.
Gotta agree with Setanta on this. I remember new dads handing out cigars regardless of new child's gender as far back as my memory reaches. And my memory reaches a good ways back.
Don't know if it is true, but I always considered a cigar a phallic symbol. (Very few women smoke cigars, and nearly none smoke big fat ones). In my mind, fathers handing out cigars are telling the world how virile and potent they are.
I have seen men give them out for both girls and boys as well. Don't think it has anything to do with the child being male. I do believe, like Merry Andrew it was a tradition started back when smoking cigars was a common thing.
Maybe it is on some level Green Witch...but it has nothing to do with the birth of a boy baby.
Don't know if it is true, but I always considered a cigar a phallic symbol. (Very few women smoke cigars, and nearly none smoke big fat ones). In my mind, fathers handing out cigars are telling the world how virile and potent they are.
If this was true they would probably have been handing out cucumbers.
Nah, it is the guy who is crowing about his maleness. Also, regular ties are phallic symbols. What is the first think that comes to mind when you see a guy in a bow tie?
ummm... Rosebud.....Citizen Cane.
Any James Bond Flick.
The vagina with teeth, this is a particularily common female character.
One of the 10, 200 sites referring to sexual innuendo related to Disney. I laughed as I read this one. People with nothing better to do. http://www.bgsu.edu/departments/tcom/faculty/ha/tcom103fall2003/gp13/gp13.pdf
Can't get into your site, Ceili, but I agree with you. Symbolism of female genitalia in film, art and literature is no less rife than phallic symbolism.
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