Kodomo No Hi: Children's day

• 06/10/2008 - 00:00
• Author: Inuchan
• Japan
• 1 Comments
• Read in IT

The Kodomo no Hi, the feast of children, is celebrated every year on fifth day of the fifth month of the year. That is May 5.

    

In this holiday every family that has at least one male child, creates kites in the shape of carp, also called Koi. These are constructed according to the age of your own child: the larger kite, the greater the age of the child.

The materials with which they are made can vary from cloth to paper, the important thing is to have nice bright and cheerful colors so as to represent the perseverance, tenacity and courage of the child. After all, carp are very strong and able to swim up the currents of rivers and waterfalls and, according to an ancient Chinese legend, for doing it they are transformed into mighty dragons.

So, what is the best encouragement for children if not this?

Once done these Koi-nobori (they are called so) they are hoisted on a roof on top of a pole, usually made of bamboo, in descending order. Let me explain better... if a family has more than one son, the largest of these will have its largest koinobori on top of all others, whereas younger brothers will be immediately below.

By now this tradition is respected to a greater extent in the countryside, providing a larger open area where they can fly these huge kites.
Even here, as for the Hina Matsuri there is a little song! !

Yane yori takai koi-nobori
Ōki na magoi wa o-t�-san
Chiisa na higoi wa kodomo-tachi
Omoshiros� ni oyoideru

-----

The koinobori are higher than the rooftops
The big black carp is the father
The small golden-red carp is the child
How pleasing it is to swim

Very cute, isn't it?

In the past, this anniversary was also called with the name of Shobu no sekku that is "Iris Shobu's festival". These are typical spring flowers, with strong, pointy leaves, their name (Shobu) is equal to the term used for the reverence in martial arts.

Then it was believed that if the evening of anniversary you diped a sprig of the plant into your bathtub's it would gave its virtues to every child who would take a bath in that water.

On this occasion it was also required the presence of flavored sake with Iris's petals and small tangles of leaves and flowers of this plant placed on the roof of the house so it could remove the malignant infestations.

Besides the creation of carp, is used even today, setting up a small decorative structure, just like for the Hinamatsuri.

After built a staircase of five steps, it is all with coated of fresh reeds (now replaced by a green cloth) expounding on it miniatures of military items (called Bugue): a complete armor, a chest, an halberd, bows and arrows, helmet, swords and hats from war. Besides that there are exposed even dolls (musha ningy�) depicting the heroes of Japan legends and history.
Here is an example, even if it is only of 3 floors!

Once everything is set up, in the center of this room is hanged a large ball called "kusudama", that represents the sun, made up of many colorful, flowered paper origami decorated with a tuft made five colored wires: white, yellow , Blue (or green), red, purple (or black) that symbolize the protection against diseases, misfortunes and the of the guy with this life.

In antiquity, it was instead created using herbal medicines and fresh flowers, symbols of the spirits of health and fertility.

If you want, I found a site where learning to create Kusudama with origami! It seems easy but rather laborious and especially for those patients! : D