Are Lullabies Good For Babies or For Their Mothers?
The most pleasant way to bestow our love, our compassion to our babies and our children is to embrace them and murmur soothing melodies.
All the studies and researches up to date show that children raised with love, affection and attention grow up to be healthier individuals. The warmth of the first years of infancy, children who receive love from their parents, especially from their mothers, are able to overcome any kind of worries and problems a lot easier in their later years.
To me, it has always been interesting figuring out how each geography creates differences in melodies. In certain geographies, we know how mothers sing such sorrowful lullabies to their babies. This is the case with Anatolian lullabies, which are full of woe. As are Spanish lullabies. In Northern European countries, we find that the lyrics and melodic constructions of lullabies are more soothing. In Armenia, the mother emits her sorrow, her emotions with lullabies of woe, telling her baby of the past; of history. Frederico Garcia Lorca, the renowned Spanish poet, touches upon this subject in his work on lullabies: “In melody, as in sweet things, history's emotion finds refuge, its permanent light free of datesand facts. Love and the breeze of our country awake in songs or in the rich paste of nougat, bringing the breath of dead epochs, in a way which they do not in stones, bells, local characters or even language. - Frederico Garcia Lorca”
In each lullaby, the mother offers her child things from beyond herself, from far away. As the children take their first steps towards the world, they meet the emotional heritage of the geography they find themselves in through music and poems. But with love, with compassion... This way, they inherit their genetic, emotional and intellectual heritage.
My personal opinion is that, against the ethnic discrimination and violence seen all over the world today, having babies and children listen to lullabies that cross national borders and geographies is vital in order to raise peaceful new generations and for long lasting world peace.
Peace, kindness and the seeds of respect towards what is different should be cultivated in the first years of infancy. The sheer effects of music on human beings has been proved scientifically as well. Most times, it is not essential to understand the lyrics in order to feel a piece of music or a melody. This puts forward the universal substance of music. Having children listen to lullabies and children's songs in different languages in their first years is helpful to imbue universal love.
