Kodomo no hi
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- For the same festival in other East Asian cultures, see Double Fifth.
Kodomo no hi (こどもの日; meaning "Children's Day") is a Japanese national holiday which takes place annually on May 5, the fifth day of the fifth month, during the Golden Week period. It is a day set aside to respect children's personalities and to celebrate their happiness.
It was originally called Tango no Sekku (端午の節句), which may originally be the Chinese Dragon Boat Festival (端午節). Sekku means a season's festival (there are nowadays five Sekku per year). This one was considered to mark the beginning of the summer or of the rainy season. Tango has a double meaning: Tan means "edge"/"first" and go means "noon". In Japanese go also means five (五), which could refer to the date of the festival being the fifth day of the fifth month. From the beginning of history, the fifth month of the Chinese calendar was said to be a month for purification, and many rites that were said to drive away evil spirits were performed in this month.
Although it is not known precisely when this day started to be celebrated, it was probably during the reign of the Empress Suiko (593-628 A.D.). In Japan, Tango no Sekku was assigned to the 5th day of the 5th month after the Nara period. Until recently, Tango no Sekku was known as Boys' Day (also known as Feast of Banners) while Girls' Day (Hinamatsuri) was celebrated on March 3. In 1948, the government decreed this day to be a national holiday to celebrate the happiness of all children and to express gratitude towards mothers. It was then renamed Kodomo no hi. There is some disgruntlement that, despite its renaming, it is still Boys' Day and it is inappropriate that Boys' Day is a national holiday, while Girls' Day on March 3 is not a national holiday. [citation needed]
On this day, families raise the carp-shaped Koinobori flags, one for each boy (or child), and display the doll of Kintarou usually riding on a large carp, and the traditional Japanese military helmet, Kabuto. Kintarou and the Kabuto are both symbols of a strong and healthy boy. Kintarou (金太郎) is the childhood name of Sakata no Kintoki who was a hero in the Heian period, a subordinate samurai of Minamoto no Raikou, having been famous for his strength when he was a child in Japan. It is said that Kintarou mounted on a bear, instead of a horse, and played with animals in the mountain when he was a young boy. Mochi rice cakes wrapped in kashiwa oak leaves, that is, kashiwa-mochi and chimaki, are traditionally served on this day.
[edit] Song of Kodomo no Hi
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- Sei Kurabe (Height Comparison)
- 柱のきずは おととしの 五月五日の 背くらべ
- Hashira no kizu wa ototoshi no gogatsu itsuka no Sei-Kurabe
- 粽たべたべ 兄さんが 計ってくれた 背のたけ
- Chimaki tabe-tabe nii-san ga hakatte kureta sei no take
- きのうくらべりゃ 何のこと やっと羽織の 紐のたけ
- Kinou kurabe-rya nan no koto, yatto haori no himo no take
- (Lyrics by UNNO Atsushi, Composed by NAKAYAMA Shinpei)
- The scratch on the pillar was marked on 5th of May in the year before last for comparison of height
- Eating and eating chimaki, my elder brother measured the length of my height
- Comparing yesterday, however, the difference was barely a length of cord of my haori short coat
