So the long-awaited “Golden Week” a.k.a. “GW” has come!
How are you all spending this long holiday?
One of the celebrated days of the GW, is called the “Children’s Day こどもの日” (kodomo no hi).
This is the day we are supposed to celebrate and wish for the health and happiness for kids, but mainly for boys.
Remember we had a day for girls back in March?
Just like many other countries in the world, we traditionally wish for happy marriage for the girls, but the strength and health for boys!
To symbolize these, the decoration for the Children’s Day to be the samurai armor or the armor’s helmet “兜” (kabuto).
So what else are decorated/eaten for the Children’s Day?
A type of mochi called “柏餅” (kashiwa mochi) is the seasonal sweets for May – the sweetened red bean paste is wrapped in mochi, then with the oak leaf. Not so pink and fluffy like the Girls’ Day tradition of the colorful rice puffs!
The schools/kindergartens, or anyone with a space in their house will also get their “鯉のぼり” (koinobori) out.
These are carps made of cloth, tied on a poll so that it will “swim” the sky – some towns/villages will have hundreds of them swimming all together which can be a breathtaking view!
This is also a season for fleur-de-lis (iris) in Japan, so you will see “菖蒲” (shoubu) flower everywhere 🙂
Written by Otoha
タグ: Japanese celebration
Hina Matsuri ? – Celebration for girls!
March 3rd is one of the many special days in Japanese culture.
Unlike the other national holidays, this is a special day to celebrate girlhood <3
How is it celebrated then?
Well, every girl has her own set of dolls called “Hina Ningyou (雛人形)”.
Her family will arrange the doll set around March 3rd, and wish for the happy marriage in their daughter’s future.
Every doll set will have at least 2 dolls – “Odairi-sama” and “Ohina-sama” – the prince and the princess!
The doll set can get larger and larger depending on how much money you can spare at the birth of your daughter, but especially in a city like Tokyo it is more of a spacing issue lol
So if you grew up in an urban apartment flat or the “Japanese mansion” flat, there’s absolutely no shame in having just the prince and princess, or perhaps just a couple more groups of servants or musicians.
In our Global Division office in Shinagawa, we are celebrating with a very simple set of just the prince and princess – BUT IN DISNEY STYLE!!!
(it’s really important as we have few girls who are not married yet…lol)
Pop in to our shop, even just to say hi to us or to Prince Micky and Princess Minnie 🙂
Written by Otoha