Japanese children's day festival
Before the airline/airport fiasco, Ella and I enjoyed a sunny Saturday lunchtime picnic at the Botanic Gardens in Coffs Harbour, as part of a Japanese childrens' festival. Apparently Coffs Harbour has an 'exchange city' in Japan, and the citizens of Sasebo gave the city 80 "koinobori" last year.
I quote Councillor Bill Palmer, Chair of Council's City Services Committee, "Children's Day is a national holiday in Japan and it's marked by families flying giant carp windsock-type kites from flagpoles next to their homes for about six weeks around the date. The holiday apparently comes from an ancient Chinese story about carp which swam up a waterfall and became dragons. As a result, the carp - or koi - became symbols of perseverance. As well as flying koinobori, Japanese families traditionally also eat special rice cakes for Children's Day - chimaki and kashiwamochi. Chimaki is a chewy rice cake served wrapped in a bamboo leaf while kashiwamochi is a chewy rice cake with sweet, red azuki bean paste inside, served between two oak leaves.
What the council didn't say is that the festival is largely to do with a celebration of boys, not girls, but we chose to ignore that element of the celebrations!
The Botanic Gardens will bear further exploration as it was really quite impressive, especially when you think that Coffs Harbour isn't really that big! We had our picnic next to a big lake with a red-painted oriental bridge straddling it, and it was very beautiful. There was a display of Japanese drumming, a stall for the kids to make Japanese carp kites out of tissue paper (very successful, despite their apparent flimsiness!), and traditional dancing and games, including the very amusing chopstick-and-jelly-bean races. We had fun.
I quote Councillor Bill Palmer, Chair of Council's City Services Committee, "Children's Day is a national holiday in Japan and it's marked by families flying giant carp windsock-type kites from flagpoles next to their homes for about six weeks around the date. The holiday apparently comes from an ancient Chinese story about carp which swam up a waterfall and became dragons. As a result, the carp - or koi - became symbols of perseverance. As well as flying koinobori, Japanese families traditionally also eat special rice cakes for Children's Day - chimaki and kashiwamochi. Chimaki is a chewy rice cake served wrapped in a bamboo leaf while kashiwamochi is a chewy rice cake with sweet, red azuki bean paste inside, served between two oak leaves.
What the council didn't say is that the festival is largely to do with a celebration of boys, not girls, but we chose to ignore that element of the celebrations!
The Botanic Gardens will bear further exploration as it was really quite impressive, especially when you think that Coffs Harbour isn't really that big! We had our picnic next to a big lake with a red-painted oriental bridge straddling it, and it was very beautiful. There was a display of Japanese drumming, a stall for the kids to make Japanese carp kites out of tissue paper (very successful, despite their apparent flimsiness!), and traditional dancing and games, including the very amusing chopstick-and-jelly-bean races. We had fun.
posted by Sara Bowen at 4:20 am
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