What is a closing ceremony?
Closing ceremonies are universal. As humans living in community, we are inherently ritualistic, marking significant life events, transitions and rites of passage.
We often hear about the Latin American roots of the practice, often known as cerrada or cierre de los huesos (Spanish for “closing of the bones”). Birth is seen as an act of profound “opening” physically, emotionally, and spiritually and the ritual “closes” this opening, marking recovery, grounding, and reintegration. It is as much a spiritual and communal healing as a physical one.
Europe has always had its own ways of ‘closing’ the postpartum period, though often framed through religion or medicine rather than explicit ritual.
Throughout the 16th–19th centuries, the social, religious, and political landscape changed so drastically that much of our oral and ritual knowledge was suppressed, reinterpreted, or forgotten. The Protestant Reformation saw many rituals as superstitious and idolatrous, and the Witchcraft Acts saw the marginalisation of female folk healers.
Today’s revived postpartum closing ceremonies- drawing from both indigenous European and Latin American roots, represent a continuity of the timeless human need to mark a mother’s passage back from birth into selfhood.
Across the British Isles, childbirth was understood as a liminal and dangerous state: the mother stood between life and death. Therefore, the weeks after birth were a time of protection, rest, warmth, and ritual closure, much like the “lying-in” or “churching” practices seen elsewhere in Europe.
Women’s healing during this time was overseen by midwives, wise women, or local healers who blended practical medicine, herbalism, and spiritual safeguarding.
A closing ceremony will often include material elements to heal new mothers, such as binding cloths to “close” the abdomen, herbs used to cleanse the room e.g. rosemary, music, poems- essentially, anything that is significant to the mother (personal, religious, cultural).
An Odyssey of Motherhood closing ceremony will involve facilitating a circle of women who are special to the mother/woman. A typical ceremony lasts about three hours and includes:
A cleansing of the ceremony space with traditional herbs of this land (e.g. rosemary, mugwort).
An opportunity for the mother/woman to talk about what she wants to close on- this could be a birth, postpartum period, loss or other significant life event.
A safe space where the mother/woman is held and heard.
A herbal bath, with offerings from others attending.
A massage
Body wrapping from head to feet
Warming food and drink
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