Baptism - Rite of passage

Baptism is the Christian religious rite of sprinkling water on to a person's forehead or of immersing them in water, symbolising purification or regeneration and admission to the Christian Church. In many denominations, baptism is performed on young children and is accompanied by name-giving.

The past Sunday, 22 August it was my daughter Ondeya's turn to undergo this rite of passage. My wife Leila organised the whole event and the ceremony was undertaken by pastor Valters Koralis(www.ticu.lv)

We held the baptism right next to the Baltic Sea and even though the sun was shining it was quite windy. Luckily we had dressed Ondeya warm and she seemed to have enjoyed the day without crying once.

Our Latvian part of the family were all present, Leila's sister Linna and her husband Kaspars enjoyed their role as Godparents of our daughter.

Even though the ceremony was conducted mostly in Latvian I enjoyed it.

After the Baptism we all went to a restaurant to enjoy a delicious Sunday lunch.

I look forward to introduce my daughter to her Namibian side of the family when the time is right.