Did you know that in Japan there are 3 holidays to celebrate Children's Day? Each with a specific goal? In this article, we are going to talk about the Kodomo no Hi, Shichigosan [753] and Hina Matsuri dates, we will venture into each of them.
Have you ever wondered what Children's Day is in Japan? There are several festivities and dates involving children, a special date for boys and one for girls. How are these dates celebrated?
Table of Contents
Kodomo no Hi - Children's Day - May 5
Kodomo no hi (子供の日) literally means Children's Day, and this date occurs on May 5 in Golden WeekOn this day, flags of carp called koinobori, are hung in gardens to symbolize strength and determination.
Families also display samurai dolls, armor, helmets, and other samurai weapons to represent the heroes Kintaro. In addition, other symbols such as Shoki, Momotaro, and Shobu are also used.
According to Article 2 of the Holiday Law, the aim is to “respect the personality of children, make children happy and thank the mother”. That day was established by the Holidays Act on July 20, 1948.
Also known as Tango no Sekku [端午の節句]. On this day, children eat chimaki, which are rice cakes wrapped in bamboo leaves, and kashiwa mochi. On this day, the song about the carp called Koinobori uta is sung.
Song of Carp - Koinobori UTA
Koinobori higher than the roof.
The big magoi father.
The small higoi are the children.
They are chasing them amusingly.
irakanano namito kumono nami
kasanarunamino nakazorawo
tachibanakaoru asakazeni
takaku oyoguya koinobori
hirakeruhiroki sonokuchini
funewo monoman samamiete
yutakani furuu obireniwa
mononi dousenu sugataari
Girls Day - Hina -Matsuri
The Girls' Day takes place on March 3rd and is called Hina Matsuri [雛祭り] or Hina no sekku. The day is ed for the peach blossoms that symbolize a happy marriage and honor girls. This date emphasizes the bonds of marriage to prosperity, happiness, luck, and health for girls.
Hina Matsuri is traditionally marked by an exhibition of dolls, ed down from mother to daughter for generations. The dolls are laid out on an altar every year.
It usually consists of 15 dolls wearing imperial court costumes from the Heian Period (794-1192). According to Japanese belief, the dolls have the gift of driving away evil spirits, diseases, bad luck, and everything bad.
On Girls' Day, it is common to drink Shirozake, which is similar to Amazake, a rice-based drink fermented without alcohol content. The traditional food is Hina Arare, a rice and soybean-based cookie covered with colored sugar.
Other typical foods are Hishimochi and Sakuramochi (mochi rice cake), Chirashizushi (rice topped with colorful vegetables and fruits), and a clam soup called Hamaguri Ushio-jiru.
The girls' or dolls' festival also has its own traditional song called Ureshii Hina Matsuri. See below:
Ureshii Hina Matsuri - Letter
Let's light the Akari bonborini
Let's offer flowers, momo no hana
The flute and drum of five people
Today is a fun Hinamatsuri
Odairisama and Ohinasama
Two of them standing side by side with serene faces
Resembling the older sister who became a bride
With a white face like her.
The day illuminates the golden hospital
The gentle spring breeze wafts by
A little white sake was offered
On the red hill, the Udaijin
Wearing a kimono and tying the obi
Today I too am in high spirits
On this beautiful day of spring in yayoi
Nothing makes me happier than hinamatsuri
SHICHI-GO-SAN [753]-Children's Festival
The Shichi-go-san [七五三] is a festival that takes place every November 15th in Japan. The name itself is literally written with the kanjis for the numbers seven, five, and three, as parents take their daughters who are three and seven years old and their sons who are three and five years old to shrines to pray for the health, good growth, and happiness of all the children present there.
A second reason for going to the shrine would be to get rid of evil spirits, although this practice is already common outside Shichi-go-san. As the festival day is not considered a holiday, if it falls on a working day, it is celebrated on the nearest weekend.
At this festival, children are usually dressed in kimonos or western formal attire, many for the first time in their lives, and are given amulets and their chitose ame (千歳飴), known as the “thousand-year bullet”.
Chitose ame is a long, thin, red and white candy that comes wrapped in edible rice paper, also very thin to the point of looking plastic.
It is associated with longevity and comes in a bag adorned with a heron and a turtle (symbols of longevity in Japan). There is a common belief that this candy bestows a thousand years of happiness on the children who receive it.
The reason why the ages of the children participating in the festival are seven, five and three years old is two. First, East-Eastern numerology adopts odd numbers as lucky numbers. The second reason would be the fact that these three ages are the most striking in a person's childhood.
The story of Shichi-go-san
The festival was established in the Heian period (794 to 1185), when nobles celebrated the growth of their children on what was considered a lucky day in November. It was in the Kamakura period (1185 to 1333) that November 15th was officially adopted as Shichi-go-san day.
From the Edo period (1603 to 1868), it became a popular Japanese festival. An addendum would be that, in the Meiji period (1968 to 1912), the tradition would have presented some other changes.
Previously, the festival was treated in a more serious way, so it had peculiarities in relation to what we observe today. When the festival ed through the time of the samurai, the belief was that children up to three years old had to have their hair shaved and that only after the festival could they grow it out for the first time.
At the age of three, the girls were dressed in their first kimono, normally flowered, and at the age of seven they would wear the obi over them for the first time. Boys would wear their first hakama at the age of five.
As stated earlier, in the Meiji era the Japanese became more lenient about Shichi-go-san traditions and even three year olds dressed in full traditional clothing. It was also when the practice of shaving children's hair ended up being abandoned.
Despite all the beauty behind all Japanese festivals, the reason why Shichi-go-san came about is somewhat melancholy. In the old days, the infant mortality rate was high in Japan, and the festival was the nobles' attempt to find an answer within a shared belief.
Currently, Japan is no longer haunted by such a problem, however, since then, the festival tradition has remained. Let's leave a video showing a little about this day:
Sekai Kodomo in Hi - World Children's Day
The UN established in 1954 the International Children's Day for 20 November, but allowed each country to set its own date. Japan chose May 5th, but it's good to the universal date of Children's Day.
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