Japanese Things 1-5 Flashcards
(6 cards)
We celebrate the New Year with our family.
The New Year holidays is a very special time of the year for the Japanese. Like the Christmas holidays of the West, schools and many businesses close, and family members get together.
We enjoy special New Year’s food on these holidays. The most popular New Year’s food is osechi, which is a combination of foods beautifully arranged in lacquer boxes.
There are also traditional games for the New Year holidays. Hanetsuki is a game like badminton played with beautifully decorated paddles. Children also like to fly kites. We also play Japanese card games called karuta or hanafuda.
This is the last day of winter in the traditional calendar.
February 3rd (third) is setsubun, which is also called Bean Throwing Day. This is the last day of winter in the traditional calendar. On this day, we throw roasted soy beans out of our front doors to drive out demons, and throw them into our houses to invite good luck.
We also pick up the thrown beans and eat the same number as our own age. Some people go to shrines or temples holding setsubun events.
Eating a large sushi roll is a popular custom for this day. We face a lucky direction and, wishing for good health, bite into the whole roll.
It’s an important event for women in live.
February 14th (fourteenth) is Valentine’s Day. It is an important day for women in love. On this day, a woman gives chocolates to the man she loves. If the man gives her gifts such as sweets in return, this means he loves her too! This might be on White Day, which is March 14th (fourteenth).
It is also a special day for couples. They go out and enjoy a romantic time.
Women working in companies, however, may not enjoy Valentine’s Day so much. This is because they have to give girichoko, or “obligatory chocolate,” to make coworkers they don’t love.
We wish for health and happiness for girls.
The Doll Festival on March 3rd (third) is a special day for girls. A family with young daughters celebrates this day and wishes for their health and growth by setting up a display of special dolls.
The dolls are placed on a stepped shelf. They are dressed in beautiful kimono of the style worn about 1000 (one thousand) years ago in the Kyoto court. The Empress and Emperor sit on the top shelf.
Doll sets are often passed on from generation to generation. On the day of the Doll Festival, we also celebrate peach blossoms and eat special rice cakes and drink sweet rice wine.
It’s a fun spring event.
Cherry blossom viewing is one of the important annual events in Japan. From March to April, cherry trees bloom across Japan. We put mats underneath the cherry blossoms in parks to hold outdoor drinking parties. It is a fun spring event.
Cherry flowers first start blooming in the southern part of Japan. During the cherry viewing season, the media track “the cherry blossom front” daily to let people know the best places for enjoying the cherry blossoms.
At the height of the season, good party spots become very popular. People line up early in the morning to get a good spot.
We wish for our boys to grow strong.
May 5th (fifth) is Children’s Day. It is a national holiday. We wish for the health and happiness of children. This day is also a day for boys, while March 3rd (third) is a day for girls.
Families with young boys celebrate this holiday with special customs. They display samurai dolls inside the home, and fly carp-shaped streamers outside in the hope that their sons will grow up strong.
In some traditional families, boys bathe in an iris bath. There are also special sweets eaten on this day, such as rice cakes wrapped in oak leaves.
