Thursday, April 19, 2007

Here's an other meaning for “Children's Day”

Remember the last time, I referred to the Children's Day, a national holiday, which is on May 5 in my country?

After I scrutinized what I had written on my previous updates, I've found that I needed to add more. Which is...what this national holiday originally meant to be, where you can figure out why people celebrate by hanging the Carp Streamers on that day. In order to explain it more accurately, I had to cite a material for that...sorry for making an excuse!!

According to the Wikipedia, it was originally called "Tango no Sekku", which may originally be the Chinese Dragon Boat Festival. 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.

Ok, enough of citation...if you'd like to learn more historically, just click the following URL;

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kodomo_no_hi

Sekku is translated "a seasonal festival " in English, while tango is separated into 2 words, tan-go. Those are "first" or "edge", and "five" or "noon", in which you can explore 2 meanings, respectively.

In short, May 5 is regarded as boy's festival in general, while March 3 is considered to be for girl's ceremony. And the Carp Streamers symbolize their own family...say, mom and dad, also their son. As is often the case with parents, they have the best wishes to their son to be grown up vigorously.
What is more, they are basically faith in their religion, that's why people in the suburbs are considered to abide by this old customs.

In contrast, people living in the urban areas seem to be against it. I think this tendency can be attributed to the bulk of citizens who are atheists, and seems apathetic to that stuff. To make matters worse, juveniles tend to commit suicide across the country in recent days, regardless of their parent's devotion to bring them up. The school- bullying well explains it.
The environments where the kids were brought up are totally different from those of the country-bred.

It is hard to believe kids kill themselves easily. I don't know why they have to be succumbed to death just because of this. Seems like the Carp Streamers is grieving such tragic circumstances as well. The reason is only that the Carp Streamers hanging over the blue sky represent the peace and the prosperity in any period.

take393