Hand in hand with what we talked about last week, your baby’s name, is who you select for your child’s Godparents. These individuals are the ones who present your child at baptism and promise to take charge of their religious upbringing. They are also the ones who announce the child’s name when the priest says those five little words “βαπτίζεται ο/h δούλος/ δούλh του Θεού” which translates to, “I baptize the servant of God .“ This is where the Godparent (nouna and nouno) announce the child’s name. I have heard stories in Greece where the nouno announced a totally different name than what had been discussed with the parents but I think (and hope) that is a thing of the past.
For most couples, the koumbaroi you choose at your wedding are given the honour of baptizing your first born and I found this to be the case with our blog collaborators.
“ My first born was baptized from our koumbaro, he made it clear from day one that the child was his and there was no discussion about it. When the child was born we confirmed everything about him being the nouno, and when it was time for the ceremony we discussed dates and options with him.”
“Our kombaroi baptized our first, and it was understood from the start.”
“Yes for the oldest our koumbaro from the wedding baptized him. “
“Our koumbara was actually my husband’s godmother which I thought would make things tricky but it did not. We both agreed that she had already played a large role in our lives, and that it would be good to extend the family by asking someone else to baptize our son. “
“ Our koumbaroi could not baptize our daughter because my husband had baptized their first born son prior to us ever meeting. I imagine had my husband not baptized their child, we would have had our koumbaroi as the Godparents. Instead, my best friend from 5 years old and matron-of-honor and her husband baptized her. They asked us to be her Godparents one day when they came to visit us and the baby. We gratefully accepted their request as we had considered them as Godparents for our daughter from the very beginning.”
Did you have difficulty in choosing you child’s Godparents or was it just an understood? Did you have others approach you to baptize your child? Share your story with us.
Roula I love your blog! I’m learning from it:)
I’m glad you’re enjoying it Colleen!
Coming from a mixed family ( mine catholic…though I converted) we agreed to make a few agreements about including both family traditions in choosing maid of honor/best man/god parents. We agreed to keep our childrens names..family names…keep both families involved in being godparents (1 from each side). It opens up the world of 2 cultures to our children. Not ways easy but was perfect in all ways…