English

Noun

churching ‎(plural churchings)

1. (Christianity) Blessing, given ceremonially to a woman who has given birth.

   The churching of women traditionally includes thanksgiving for the women's survival of childbirth.

   • Charles Dickens, The Bloomsbury Christening (in Sketches by Boz)

     The clergyman had to dine some distance from town, and had got two churchings, three christenings, and a funeral, to perform in something less than an hour.

   • 2010, Chris Given-Wilson, Fourteenth Century England VI, page 145:

     As discussed in detail by Caroline Shenton, the churchings of Queen Philippa, for which the details following Isabella's birth in 1333 survive, represented a 'gigantic festival of a family whose start in life had been extremely unsteady'.

Translations

Verb

churching

1. present participle of church