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Some have a custom to have a party when a boy turns three, to celebrate his reaching the age where we can begin to educate him in Torah and mitzvot. In many communities, they used to teach boys to read at age three; in some communities that is still the case. At the party, the boy gets his first “grown up” haircut. The peyot (sidelocks), which may not be shaved off, are left uncut (25:4 below). Some have a rabbi cut a lock of the boy’s hair and bless him with success in his Torah study. These are relatively new customs, and by no means universal.
