Baptism (Anime)

Baptism (洗礼式, senrei-shiki) is a religious ceremony in Ehrenfest. Children participate in it after turning seven, marking the beginning of their life as a full-fledged member of society and conferring the rights of citizenship.

Baptisms are held in the church four times a year, on the beginning of each season. Traditionally children wear white clothes to their baptism, embroidered with patterns in the colour of the respective season, green for spring, blue for summer, yellow for autumn and red for winter. In addition the children also wear a sash around their waist, also in the seasonal colour. For the mothers of the poorer parts of town making the best baptism clothes they can for their children is a way to show off their sewing skills to the neighbors. Howver in the poor parts of the city few people can afford new clothes for each of their children, so like any other clothing baptismal clothes too are handed down to younger siblings of the same gender.

Processions begin in the main streets at the edge of the city and progress to the central plaza. Once all the processions have gathered, they then move on to the temple. While moving, the wealthy children walk in the front, while the poor children walk in the back. Only the children themselves may enter the temple for the ceremony, while the adults wait outside. Once in the temple, they are registered by blue priests using blood to mark the silver disks then are sat on carpets. To keep the noise down and suppress the screams of the more squeamish children having their finger pircked, the temple employs magic tools that dampen any sound from the children to a mere whisper. Once all the children are registered, the High Priest then arrives and tells the children the shortened version of the story of the gods and seasons after which they are taught how to pray. Finally the High Priest blesses the children with the relevant god's blessing.