Kimono Philes
Some old shots.. in the thumb drive ... begging to be blogged...
Shichi-Go-San or 7-5-3 Festival - 15 November, Shichigosan, is the traditional custom of taking boys aged 3 and 5 and girls aged 3 and 7 to be blessed at the local Shinto shrine to thank god for their good health and pray for future blessings. Children are dressed up in colourful kimonos! how cute!
Adult's Day - 15 January, is the Celebration of the coming of age for boys and girls turning 20 that year. The coming of age symbolizes amongst other grown-up things, the right to buy cigarettes and alcohol legally... and to erm.. snog... :P. Ceremonies are held at temples and shrines and girls wear special kimonos for the occasion.
Hina Matsuri - 3 March, is the festival dedicated to young girls. Dolls representing an ancient Imperial couple, are displayed in houses of unmarried girls, to bring good fortune to them. Superstition has it that if the dolls are not put back into their boxes before midnight, the girls in that house will never marry... yikes! :P
Tanabata Matsuri or Star Festival - 7 July, according to the Chinese legend, a princess and a shepherd fell in love, but were forbidden to meet, except for that day of the year (tanabata), when the two stars Kengyu (the shepherd) and Shokujo (the princess) meet in the Milky Way. Awww.. so romantic!
Children write poems or wishes on streamers and attach them to special tanabata trees.
Are you kidding... the way some of these Japanese chicks dress.. it looks like Halloween the whole year round... (ya think?!)
8 comments:
so nice!
yerr, legends are so politically incorrect hor, why princess cannot marry shepherd hor! these days, can sue for inequality, sexism, and what not. i vaguely remember this tale from my "chinese legends" book in the days of yore.
FBB: These days, the princess may not even get to marry the shepherd if he strikes it big with the IPO of his startup company selling luxury wool on the internet... instant dot.com millionaire... LOL
cumi&ciki:Ooh, I wanna visit Tokyo but soon. I heard springtime is still the best time, for the sakura if nothing else?
...and Oshogatsu on 1st January every year where they visit shrines to pray for health and luck. and a good time to see them in beautiful kimonos and flawless skin as well.
i prefer kyoto! (very uncle hor, me? hehehe)
fatboybakes:
but isn't unrequited love just the most romantic.. ? no heartbreak, no shiok
kenny:
regarding instant dot.com.. lol:)
visit japan.. its the coolest.. but a lil hard to communicate outside tokyo
nic:
o yar.. uv bin there often right?! flawless skin and kimonos.. and u came back.. how come..teehee:P
oh, in this case, i think it wasnt unrequited lurve wor. it was very much requited, but protocol of the day didnt allow princess to romp around the haystack with shepherd ler....and i think it angered some powers that be, that must have cursed them, hence can only meet once a year. so sad hor.
really...? oh wow... in that case... "So Lusty!" hahaha
It wasn't that they kenot marry - they did! The Japanese version is like this... The king had a daughter who wove the most beautiful cloth in all the heavens. She always made him happy with the beautiful clothes she made for him, so he wanted to reward her. He found her a husband (the shepherd) and they both fell in love and got married. However, after they got married, they started to ignore their duties. The princess didn't weave anymore cloths and the shepherd didn't take care of his sheep (the stars) so they were scattered all over the heavens. This made the king angry, so he cursed them to be separate all the time. The princess was very sad, so the ravens said that they will bring her to meet her husband every year at Tanabata :)
Very nice pictures, btw. Thanks for sharing!
priscilla:
ah.. someone who knows her legends.. i c ! thanks for the clarification on that love story... aw... it's really touching no? wishing you a good week:D
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