For Balinese, a child’s spiritual quotient is as important as its intelligence, and it is equally critical as its health. A series of ritual ceremonies are carried out so that the infant is free from physical trouble as well as spiritual disturbances. Soon after birth in a Balinese family, the new life begins with series of purification ceremonies, as it is believed that, beyond joy and happiness, the arrival of an infant causes sebel impurity.

Among the most important ritual is when a baby reaches three months of age according to Balinese Calender. The three-month ceremony is believed to be the time of the release of the baby from the guardianship of the god Kumara. And the union of the spirit of the reincarnated and the baby into the family temple.

The Telubulan three-month ceremony is actually when a baby is 105 days old –one month of the Balinese calendar is 35 days on the lunar calendar. This will be a fiesta where suckling pig s, ducks or chicken is served, as family, relatives and friends arrive to give the infant gift. How merry the ceremony is depended on their caste and cash.

A young couple living outside their hometown will usually return home for their baby’s ceremony, as it requires the Merajan family temple and the elders to be present. Days before the event, offerings are prepared and the grandparents consult a priest to find out whose soul is reincarnated in the baby. On many occasions the reincarnating spirit makes conditional requests, such as certain colors for the ceremonial clothes, animal to sacrifice and sometimes whether a puppet performance should be held for the festivities. When such performance is included, the puppet master sprinkles the baby and parents with holy water at the end of the show, following an epic story of how the good triumphs over the evil.

Four figures – made of woven coconut leaf, banana tree trunk, a chicken and the heart of banana fruit shaped into human form – represent the infant’s four spiritual siblings, known as Kanda Pat Rare. There are all dressed with the baby’s old clothing as the will be saved after ceremony. The idea is, if bad things must happen, they should happen to these siblings instead.

Then, the Kanda Pat Rare and the baby are hold by parents and each family member as they circle the offerings three times. In every “lap” necklaces, rings, arm and leg bracelets are dropped into a bucket of water as offerings. The family members pick them up as gifts for the infant. Later the umbilical cord will be put inside a locket of the necklace as an amulet.

As the ritual is completed, it believed that the baby is released from the hand of the baby-sitting god Kumara and finally goes into its mother’s loving care. They pray at the family temple after being blessed by the priest with holy water from various sources. After prayer, a special offering for the reincarnated soul is placed and encircled three times as the symbol of union for the spirit of the baby and the spirit of the ancestors of the family.