Whether it’s a starter home or a custom estate, building a new home is a monumental endeavor for the builder, trades, and homeowner. We believe a new home is an enduring fixture that will provide a lifetime of memories as well as housing for future generations. Thus, we celebrate each new home with a groundbreaking ceremony and blessing of the project that has become tradition here at Bost Custom Homes.

Even as our schedules become increasingly cluttered, we believe it’s important to make time for the celebrations that bring value to our lives. For our team and our clients, the groundbreaking ceremony has become one of the most significant events of the entire homebuilding process. It may seem trivial, but through this tradition we now share special memories with dozens of families and continue to build new ones with the next generation.

Any anthropologist or historian will agree that nearly all ceremonies are rooted in religion, and groundbreaking ceremonies are no different. Across cultures and religious traditions, celebrating the commencement of a construction project with a ceremony is nearly universal.

In the West, the tradition of laying a building’s cornerstone dates to the early Christian church in Eastern Europe, and earlier. Cornerstone ceremonies often involved symbolism of building on a spiritually solid foundation and receiving blessing from God. The idea of blessing the ground before breaking it to build upon is also rooted in ancient mysticism across cultures.

Although our ceremony is more social and celebratory in nature, we do pray a blessing over the project—for the safety of the workers, the ease of logistics, long-term waterproofing (half kidding), and, above all, for the family that will inhabit the completed home and create a lifetime of memories there.

Although we don’t always share cultural or faith backgrounds with our clients, the blessing portion of the groundbreaking has always been a bonding moment between our team and our clients. It certainly helps us start the project off on the right foot, with a unified team paddling in the same direction. We believe taking the time to celebrate important milestones not only brings us closer together, but also produces better results in the field. It helps to remind us that we are building something greater than the sum of its features and budget items—we’re building a home.

EVAN BOST is director of sales and marketing at BOST CUSTOM HOMES. Contact this custom builder at 919-460-1983 or BOSTHOMES.COM.