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| LEARNING JAPANESE WITH LINDA CLARK |
 |
| FESTIVALS |
New Year's Day is the best of the festivals for almost
Japanese. People pay the first visit to shrines,
wishing good luck and happiness. And children receive
"otoshidama"(a New Yesr's gift) from thire parents
and relateives.
The soy bean throwing ceremony is a Buddhist festival
observed on February 4. We call the day "Setsubun".
It is the turning point from winter to spring to the old
calender.
March 3 is a festival for girls. We call the "hina matsuri"
or "momo-no sekku".
The "hanamatsuri" is held on April 8. This festival is
celebrated in the birthday of Buddha.
May 5 is Boy's Festival called "tangono-sekku". We eat
Chimaki (rice dumplings wrapped in bamboo leaves) and
Kashiwamochi (those wrapped in oak leaves) on this day.
July 7 is Tanabata, the Star Festival. We have fun writing
our wishes on strips colored paper and fasten them to
bamboos. This is just like Christmas trees.
The Bon Festival , which is Buddist holy day, is held between
the 13th to 15th of either July or August. Depending on a
district, Bon Festival is held at different times of the year.
November 15 is " shichi-go-san",which means seven, five,
and three. This is a festival for five-years old boys, and
three and seven years old girls.
And we have many many local festivals in Japan.
If you have questions and need more informations,
feel free to get in touch with me.
Could I hear about American Festivals?
See you
Hajime
*****************************************************************************************************************************
Two Tanabata Poems
translated by Jane Hirshfield and Mariko Aratani
Amidst the flowers a jug of wine,
I pour alone lacking companionship.
So raising the cup I invite the Moon,
Then turn to my shadow which makes three of us.
Because the Moon does not know how to drink,
My shadow merely follows the movement of my body.
The moon has brought the shadow to keep me company a while,
The practice of mirth should keep pace with spring.
I start a song and the moon begins to reel,
I rise and dance and the shadow moves grotesquely.
While I'm still conscious let's rejoice with one another,
After I'm drunk let each one go his way.
Let us bind ourselves for ever for passionless journeyings.
Let us swear to meet again far in the Milky Way.
Chinese love poem by Li Bai
TANABATA : known as the festival of Lovers or Star Festival, is based on an old romantic Chinese legend. It celebrates the story of two
lovers, Shokujo and Kenju. Shokujo was a princess who was asked by her father to weave a wonderful cloth. Instead of completing her
task, she fell in love with a shepherd named Kenju. When the King discovered that the cloth was not woven and that his daughter had
fallen in love with a commoner, he became angry and he banished his daughter and her lover to the sky. He said that they could only meet
once a year on Tanabata. When the two star-crossed lovers tried to meet however, they could not cross the sky. The lovebirds took pity on
them and spread their wings between the two stars to make the Milky Way. That is why once a year Shokujo and Kenju are able to meet
again. The two stars associated with this celebration are Altair and Vega, on opposite sides of the Milky Way.
This legend was brought to Japan and combined with the legend of Princess Oto-Tanabata, who offered her woven products to a god.
Thus, the star festival was born out of these two ancient legends and named Tanabata(which means loom or weaver) and on July 7, the
Japanese decorate a bamboo tree with strips of colorful papers on which they write their wishes. If the sky is clear, and beautiful stars
shine through, then the two star-crossed lovers can meet and that their wishes will be granted.
*********************************************************************************************************************
Japan celebrates Princess
Masako's baby girl
Saturday, December 1, 2001 at 15:02 JST
TOKYO ? Japanese were overjoyed Saturday at the
birth of a girl to Crown Prince Naruhito and Crown
Princess Masako, with some predicting the latest
royal could help dispel the gloom from the recession
and climbing unemployment rates.
"It's wonderful news. We'd been anxious over
whether the princess would deliver a baby safely,"
said Noriko Iyoku, a Tokyo company worker in her
late 20s.
"Because Masako-san and the crown prince had no
baby...since their marriage (in 1993)," added her
friend Asako Yoshida, also in her late 20s.
Yet many on the streets in Tokyo's Akasaka district
said they believe the time has come for Japan to
seriously consider whether the country should again
allow a female member of the world's oldest
hereditary monarchy to ascend the imperial throne.
The last empress to do that was Go-Sakuramachi,
who reigned from 1762 to 1770.
Tokyo resident Hiroaki Nakazaki said Japan should
change the male-only succession law to allow a
woman to ascend the Chrysanthemum Throne.
"Britain has a queen and so do some other
European countries. Why does Japan have to stick
to the old traditions? I would like to see an empress
in Japan," said Nakazaki, 43.
But some Japanese, especially youths, were
indifferent over the royal birth.
"I have no interest in such news," said a 20-year-old
woman studying at a Tokyo university who requested
anonymity. "Don't the media have other news to
cover?"
"I feel the imperial family is so distant from us," she
said. "I only wish the baby will be healthy and
happy, just like other babies."
Princess Masako, 37, gave birth to her first child at
2:43 p.m., according to the Imperial Household
Agency.
The news is likely to prompt debate on the
possibility of a reigning empress due to the lack of
an immediate heir to the imperial throne after the
41-year-old crown prince and his younger brother
Prince Akishino, 36, under the male-only succession
law.
Although Prince Akishino is in line for the throne,
talk of changing the Imperial House Law to allow
Japan to have a reigning empress is expected to
become a heated topic of debate.
The girl is the third grandchild for Emperor Akihito
and Empress Michiko. Prince Akishino and his wife
Princess Kiko have two daughters ? 10-year-old
Mako and 6-year-old Kako. |
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