Upsherin אפשערן

The upsherin (Yiddish for "shear off") is the first-haircut ceremony held when a boy turns three, observed widely and especially popular in Charedi communities; it became common from about the 17th century.

The hair is cut but the peyos are left, and from then on the boy wears a yarmulke and tzitzis and is taught to pray and read the Hebrew letters — often coated with honey so the Torah will be "sweet on the tongue". Many hold it at a tzaddik's grave or on Lag BaOmer in Meron, a practice described by the 18th–19th centuries; sometimes the hair is weighed and its weight given in charity.