Today is Babinden, Granny’s or Midwives’ Day, a popular feast day celebrating the elderly women who once helped women give birth.

The day, once marked on 21 January, old style, has lost many of its rituals of old, such as the bathing of the baby by the granny, a lavish meal for the young brides at the granny’s house. After pouring out water for the granny to wash her hands in, the women would gift her with shirts, stockings and cloth. The granny on her part would tie a red and white thread to the wrist of the child.

Babinden falls on 21 January, old style, the date which was declared a day of natal care, obstetricians and gynecologists in 1951.