The National Zoo’s giant panda Mei Xiang gave birth to a cub on Friday evening, becoming a rare bright spot in otherwise difficult times. But we won’t know more about this tiny bear — including its sex or name — for a while.

The zoo has typically waited 100 days to name newborn pandas in “a nod and acknowledgment of Chinese culture and history,” spokesperson Pamela Baker-Masson tells DCist.

She says while it’s not a modern-day practice, historically many countries and cultures, including China, waited to name babies for 100 days due to survival rates.

“100 days is just a mark of, you know, ‘100 days have passed, this cub is healthy and thriving,'” she says.

In the past, the zoo has held celebrations to mark the naming of the panda cub and even had the public vote on their favorite names for panda cub Bao Bao in 2013. In 2015, Michelle Obama and China’s first lady, Madame Peng Liyuan, named Bao Bao’s younger brother, Bei Bei.

Baker-Masson says the naming may look different this year. She has not yet had a chance to confer with the zoo’s colleagues in China about the plans yet, and given the unpredictability of the COVID-19 pandemic, there are too many unknowns to speculate.

However, she says the zoo “cares very deeply about its digital outreach, now more than ever,” and will be taking into consideration how many people have found joy in the cub’s birth.

“They’re gonna care about the cub’s name, the cub’s first appearance, all this good stuff,” she says. “And we will do our very best to engage everybody and just take everybody along for this very joyful journey because I know from the feedback we’re getting that it’s just a really awesome moment of joy and we can all use more of that in our lives right now.”

The baby panda’s arrival Friday at 6:35 p.m. prompted widespread excitement. People around the world can watch the mother and her cub via the zoo’s live Panda Cam, which crashed for part of the day Friday.

Right now, the cub is pink and tiny, about the size of a stick of butter, but will start to look more panda-like in about a month when its black and white pattern fully emerges. By three months, it will weigh around 11 pounds and start to crawl.

The zookeepers have not examined the cub yet but said it appears strong and healthy from glimpses they’ve seen on video. They are waiting until Mei Xiang feels comfortable setting the cub down for periods of time to determine the sex.

In an update posted to its website on Sunday, the zoo said, “As expected, Mei Xiang is being an excellent and attentive mother,” adding that she has established positions for nursing and sleeping, the latter with the cub tucked between her arms.

Since Friday, the cub has been “vocalizing regularly with grunts and squeals” but the zoo says Mei Xiang appears to be getting more rest with this cub.

“In previous years, Bao Bao and Bei Bei would vocalize when she attempted to lie down on her side,” the zoo said in its update.