Baptism facts for kids

Baptising by immersion, Odessa.

Baptism is a rite or ceremony performed by most Christian churches and denominations. It is done as a cleansing symbol. It shows that the person being baptized has become a follower of Jesus. it can represent the joining of the Christian family

Methods

Roman Catholicism baptize infants to mark their becoming members of the church. It is a sacrament usually performed by a priest. In most other churches, it is when the person is old enough to decide that they are ready.

Some religious groups practice baptism by sprinkling a small amount of water on the person, usually their head. Other groups use full immersion, dipping the whole person in the water.

Baptism in early Christian art. This is a fresco in the catacombs of Rome.

Bible times

In the Old Testament, a similar washing ceremony was done when priests were ordained. Jesus was baptized by John the Baptist before he began his ministry. The usual form of baptism among the earliest Christians was for the person to be immersed totally or partially. But sprinkling, or pouring, was also practiced at an early day with sick and dying persons when total or partial immersion was not practical.

Images for kids

• 

  Masaccio (1425–1426). Baptism of the Neophytes [it]. Brancacci Chapel, Florence. This painting depicts baptism by affusion. The artist may have chosen an archaic form for this depiction of baptism by St. Peter.

• 

  Catacombs of San Callisto: baptism in a 3rd-century painting

• 

  Al-Maghtas ruins on the Jordanian side of the Jordan River are the location for the Baptism of Jesus and the ministry of John the Baptist.

• 

  Excavated mikveh in Qumran, Israel

• 

  Christening photograph in Orthodox Church. The moment of Catechism.

• 

  Baptism by submersion in the Eastern Orthodox Church (Sophia Cathedral, 2005)

• 

  Men lined up to be baptized by immersion in the River Jordan

• 

  Baptism of a child by affusion

• 

  Long laced gown worn at a typical Lutheran baptism in Sweden in 1948

• 

  Baptism of Augustine of Hippo as represented in a sculptural group in Troyes cathedral (1549)

• 

  The baptistry at St. Raphael's Cathedral, Dubuque, Iowa. This particular font was expanded in 2005 to include a small pool to provide for immersion baptism of adults. Eight-sided font architectures are common symbology of the day of Christ's Resurrection: the "Eighth Day".

• 

  Baptism Jar, used in Portuguese Ceylon.

• 

  Russian Orthodox priest greeting an infant and its godparents on the steps of the church at the beginning of the Sacred Mystery of Baptism.

• 

  A river baptism in North Carolina at the turn of the 20th century. Full-immersion (submersion) baptism continues to be a common practice in many African-American Christian congregations today.

• 

  A baptistry in a Methodist church

• 

  Syro-Malabar Major Archbishop crowning a baby after baptism

• 

  An Orthodox baptism

• 

  A Mormon baptism, circa the 1850s

• 

  Christening of USS Dewey

• 

  Mandaeans undergoing baptism (masbuta) in the Karun River, Ahvaz, Iran

• 

  Baptism of a Yazidi child in Lalish

See also

In Spanish: Bautismo para niños