Early childhood in Kamocsa from the end of the 19th century to the present day

László Gál of Kamocsa: "In the happy time of my childhood..." ; (Passing on life, birth, naming, baptism and early childhood in Kamocsa) ; ; Last year, a long-cherished dream of mine came true, when I managed to record and thus perpetuate the customs of choosing a partner and wedding in Kamocsa for future generations. Now, following the principle of continuity, I would like to record certain moments of having a child, expecting a child, birth, choosing a first name, baptism and early childhood up to and including compulsory school age. ; As the wedding rhyme says: "Much luck, wealth, little things for the year". If the wish came true and the baby was born, it was called a "love child". I already noted in my previous little wedding article that the young bride was expected to be the pledge of the future, the heir, the child, because the functioning of peasant society was also based on the principle of continuity. When the members of the older generation - the grandparents - grew old from working on the border, the generation that followed them took their place. The young brides gave birth to their first child at the age of 16-17, who was followed by 9, 10, 12 children in the line. Pregnancy was not a topic of conversation among the simple, modest peasants and was not even mentioned until the mother showed signs of "being sick" and since "pregnancy is not an illness", in most cases the women worked as long as they could, often even until the day of childbirth. According to my grandmother, Gyuláné Szabó Gizella Lukács (1923-2008), even on the evening of her daughter Janka's birth (1950), she was out to the "porta" for fodder beet leaves (potatoes), which she carried home on foot on her back in "lazy clothes". At night, she gave birth to her 4200-gram daughter. The midwife assisted during the birth, who calculated the approximate date of birth from "when the child starts moving", "not making a big fuss about it". The saying went, "if the tears write it down, it's enough". If someone "pushed" the calculated time - it will be a boy. The gender of the unborn child, since there was no 3D ultrasound, was inferred from the position of the woman's belly: if the woman's belly is up and pointed - it will be a boy, if it is down, round and wide, it will be a girl. If a woman's face is "smooth" during pregnancy, she will have a son; if it is "smooth or wrinkled", she will have a daughter, because "the mother eats the sweetest food". There is no record of how many times this observation-based saying came true. After all, they said: "If a child is sweet, let him be healthy". During pregnancy, especially in the first half, a pregnant woman was not allowed to admire anything (animals, disabled people) much, lest she "forget" and give birth to one. They also took care that the pregnant mother "was not harmed", lest she fall, or some fruit fall from a tree, be bitten by a dog, or be "skunked" (a mouse) run up and get it, because it would be visible on the newborn in the form of a birthmark, "leaving a permanent mark". If they knew someone was "in good health" and went into a place where they were cooking or eating, they would offer them some of the food "in case they were hungry, so that they wouldn't get Péter's milk". ; When the pregnant woman felt her pain, "every hour" and her water broke, they immediately put water on the boil and sent for the midwife, who had to complete a 6-week midwifery course in Pest from the end of the 19th century, and then a 6-month course from the 1920s, and after successfully passing an exam based on what she had learned there, she could receive her "midwife's certificate".