Happy Kodomo No Hi – Children’s Day!

This week in Konnichiwa Kids Club Japanese classes in Brisbane Childcare centres we have been celebrating ‘Kodomo no Hi’ or ‘Children’s Day’! Children’s day is all about celebrating the health, happiness and success of children. You might remember that ‘Hina Matsuri’ celebrated GIRLS back in March. Well, Kodomo no Hi was for centuries celebrated as a day for boys, but in 1948 was renamed as Children’s Day. Despite this many of the traditions relate to boys, which is probably fair, since girls had a day in March 🙂

So what are the traditions? The main 2 that come to mind are Koinobori and Kabuto!

Koinobori
These are carp streamers that are hung in towns, on houses, at schools, above rivers and parks and so on. They represent carp. The ‘Koinobori’ song tells us that the Black carp or ‘koi’ represents the Father while the colourful koi represent the children. Where’s the mother? Well, I have heard also that the RED koi represents the mother. But in older traditions, since this celebration was about BOYS maybe the streamers only represented the father and sons. I’m not sure though! And why is it CARP streamers? Well, there is an ancient story about carp swimming upstream and when it became hard all of the other fish gave up but the carp endured and when they reached their destination they were transformed into dragons! So they are a symbol of strength and persistence.

Kabuto
Kodomo no Hi celebrates children growing up STRONG and resilient, and what better symbol of strength can you think of than Samurai! Families display Samurai Armour replicas in their house (small ones usually) or samurai helmets. The Armour is called Yoroi and the Helmet is Kabuto. Lots of kindys have fun making kabuto out of newspaper with the chidlren! You can try it at home.

So everybody… Happy Kodomo no Hi