When a child is born into a Muslim family, a sheikh (or community leader) is asked to visit the child and whisper the phrase Allahu akbar (God is great) into his or her ear. A male child is circumcised by a local healer or by a doctor. In Christian families, a new baby is baptized in a church. The oldest son is named after his grandfather so that the name continues to pass down throughout the generations. During the early 2000s, Syrians named their babies after the new president, Bashar, and at the start of the civil war, newborns are often named after fathers or brothers who died from the fighting. 
In the circumstance of death, rituals vary between Muslims, Christians, and Druze (another common religious group). For Muslims, the dead are ritually washed by a close relative, dressed in white cotton cloth, and buried quickly with the head turned towards Mecca, Saudi Arabia. Women and men have separate funeral services, and women are not usually allowed to attend the burial. Christians are buried in wooden caskets, and the funeral procession carries the body by car from the hospital or the deceased's home to the cemetery. For those who die as martyrs (those who sacrifice their lives for political and religious causes), their funerals are celebrated like a wedding because martyrs are destined for eternal life in paradise, according to Islamic tradition. Women cheer and sing, their coffins are wrapped with the Syrian flag, and the dead are revered by poets.