Rabbi who had just had a grandson). I am sorry that I do not have a photograph of his expression to show you, when I asked him innocently, "When is it?". The look on his face seemed to ask, "Is he Jewish?"
Ashkenazim hold a Shalom Zakhar on the Friday night after the birth of a boy. Sephardim do not have this custom. What you recall is the Akd Il Yas (or Berith Yis-haq), which includes the reading of Zohar, and is held the night before the Milah. It is universal among Sephardim, and many Ashkenazim (notably Hasidim) have this custom too.  I imagine, therefore, that  your distant relatives are Ashkenazim and you are Sephardi.   
The Ashkenazi custom of holding a Shalom Zakhar, has some Qabbalistic roots. A Se'uddah is given because the fetus was saved from his mother's womb. The baby is visited because it is considered to be in mourning for the

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Q. I was recently invited, by distant relatives,  to a gathering in honor of their new-born baby boy. They held it on Friday night even though the Milah was to be on Tuesday. I know that this has to be the night before the Milah, but my relatives told me it can only be on Friday night.
A. It was many years ago, but I remember it as if it were yesterday, when I was invited, for the first time, to a "Shalom Zakhar" (by an Ashkenazi

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