🇮🇳 India
Griha pravesh is the rite of entering a new home, performed on an auspicious date with a puja, a hawan fire and a pot of milk boiled until it overflows. The family enters right foot first, carrying a kalash and a lamp.
Read: GrihapraveshNew homes and beginnings: compared across 18 places
The same idea in 18 places, grouped by region. Each entry is a short portrait; follow the link for the full tradition.
South Asia 2Southeast Asia 2East Asia 2Central Asia and the Caucasus 1Middle East 2North Africa 1Sub-Saharan Africa 1Europe 3North America 2Latin America and the Caribbean 1Oceania 1
South Asia
🇳🇵 Nepal
A new house receives a blessing from a priest and a ritual of lamps, tika and a family feast. Newar households hold a purification rite with a sacred fire before moving in.
Newar people, being writtenSoutheast Asia
🇻🇳 Vietnam
Le nhap trach, the housewarming, includes offerings to the household gods and the ancestors, a chosen auspicious day, and a first meal with friends and neighbours. Guests bring gifts such as fruit, rice and a pot of flowers, and the host serves them tea and sweets.
Culture of Vietnam, being written🇮🇩 Indonesia
Javanese families hold a slametan with a meal of rice cone, tumpeng, to bless the new home, and Balinese hold a house-blessing with offerings at the family temple. The tumpeng is cut at the top, and the first slice is offered to the oldest person present.
Read: TumpengEast Asia
🇨🇳 China
Moving into a new home is timed by an almanac to a lucky date, and families may light firecrackers, carry rice and a stove first, and consult feng shui. Gifts of fruit, red envelopes and plants come from guests.
Read: Feng shui🇯🇵 Japan
A jichinsai ground-purification ceremony is held before building, led by a Shinto priest, and a topping-out, joto-shiki, takes place when the roof frame is up. Hikkoshi soba, buckwheat noodles, are given to neighbours after a move.
Read: JichinsaiCentral Asia and the Caucasus
🇺🇿 Uzbekistan
A housewarming, uy toyi, is held with a feast of plov for relatives and neighbours, who bring gifts for the household. A guest at the first meal is offered the best seat and the first helping.
Pilaf, being writtenMiddle East
🇮🇷 Iran
Families pass a mirror, a Quran, bread, salt and sweets through the door and sprinkle water on the steps, to bring blessing and abundance. Neighbours come with flowers and sweets.
Culture of Iran, being written🇸🇦 Arabia
A new house is blessed with Quran recitation and the sacrifice of an animal in some families, and a meal is offered to neighbours and the poor. A new house is also traditionally entered right foot first, with a prayer for blessing.
Islamic culture, being writtenNorth Africa
🇲🇦 Morocco
Families bring bread, salt, milk and dates to a new home, and a lamb may be slaughtered at the threshold. Henna is sometimes applied to the door for blessing.
Culture of Morocco, being writtenSub-Saharan Africa
🇿🇦 South Africa
Many families hold an ancestors ceremony to introduce themselves to the spirits of the new home, with an animal sacrifice and a meal. The housewarming braai is common in all communities.
Read: Ancestor venerationEurope
🇬🇧 United Kingdom
A housewarming party brings friends with gifts, and a traditional gift of a loaf of bread, salt and coal wishes the house plenty, flavour and warmth. Carrying the bride over the threshold is a wedding custom.
Read: Housewarming party🇷🇺 Russia
A cat is sent over the threshold first, as a lucky and exploratory pioneer, and bread and salt are offered to the new owners. A first meal is shared with the neighbours.
Culture of Russia, being written🇮🇪 Ireland
A blessing with holy water and a candle, and a gift of a bag of salt, a loaf and a coin, are traditional wishes for the new house. A priest may say a prayer in some families.
Culture of Ireland, being writtenNorth America
🇺🇸 United States
Welcome baskets, a Welcome Wagon and the housewarming party are common, and Navajo families hold a Blessingway ceremony when a hogan is built. A house blessing is performed by many Christian clergy.
Read: Housewarming party🇲🇽 Mexico
Families hold a house blessing, bendicion de casa, with a priest and holy water, and a party with food, and hang a cross or a Virgin of Guadalupe image near the door. Neighbours bring plates of food, and the party often lasts into the evening with music.
Culture of Mexico, being writtenLatin America and the Caribbean
🇵🇪 Peru
Many families hold a despacho or an offering to Pachamama before laying the foundation, and some bury a bundle of coca leaves and sweets under the first stone. A roof-raising party follows.
Pachamama, being writtenOceania
🇳🇿 New Zealand
A karakia, a blessing in Maori, is said before a building is opened, and a house or a business may be cleansed with water and greenery in a ceremony called whakawatea. The blessing includes sprinkling water through each room, and a shared meal follows.
Read: KarakiaAbout this page
Written by the EveryParampara desk with AI assistance. Customs differ from place to place and family to family. If this is your tradition and we have it wrong, tell us.