Baby Shower

This afternoon I went to my first Guatemalan baby shower. My friend Ana's sister Ingrid is very pregnant (about one week short of 9 months) with her second baby. I have never been to a US baby shower, so it's a bit hard to compare them. Actually, that's not true. While visiting Boston a few weeks ago, I had the opportunity to go to a very unconventional cocktail-party baby shower. I know there weren't going to be any pink and blue colored cocktails at this party (though purple and yellow jello in a plastic baggy did make an appearance). But I'm pretty sure that this baby shower was a lot like conventional baby showers in the US--food, games, opening of presents and oohing and aahing over cute baby booties, hats and onesies.

Because Ana was one of the organizers, I arrived before the party really started and got to help make chicken salad sandwiches and began to feel pretty comfortable hanging out in the kitchen with the great group of women (Ana's sisters, sisters-in-law, aunts etc.). But when the games began, I was a bit lost. Why are baby shower games so ridiculous? Wrapping toilet paper around the pregnant person's belly? Wearing garbage-bag-sized fake diapers? The one that took the cake was this game called "patito" in which one person is blindfolded and then everyone else in the room switches seats. The blindfolded person has to approach someone and say "patito, patito" to which the person responds, "cuya cuya". From these words, the blindfolded person has to guess who they're talking to. Oh, and the blindfolded person can touch the other person (also a little weird to do with people I've never met.) But the kicker was that I didn't know who anyone was even when I wasn't blindfolded! I knew Ana and her two sisters, but they were in the kitchen cooking. So when it was my turn, I just guessed..."Ingrid's sister-in-law?" "Ingrid's aunt?" "Ingrid's cousin?" (which turned out to be correct. A good thing, since my family vocabulary was running low). Then we played a few games in which we offered advice to Ingrid. This was also somewhat difficult, since I've never had a baby. But I made something up. And perhaps something even a bit more profound than the 7-year old who advised Ingrid that she should always bathe her baby. But not much more profound.

Anyway, I'm still convinced baby showers are an odd thing, but it was a lot of fun to get to go to this one and I'm really thankful for being invited. If anyone can explain to me why we call these things "showers" I, along with about 20 Guatemalan women, am quite curious. Where does that use of the word shower come from?