Children's Day// こどもの日
On May 5th in Japan, Children's Day is celebrated pronounced Kodomo no Hi(こどもの日). This special day used to be known as Boy's Day, is now a national holiday celebrating both boys and girls. Parents pray for their children's happiness, health, and future. However, for most people, they still follow old traditions and continue to celebrate May 5th as a day only to pray for the health and happiness of their sons.
On this day, the sky is crowded with fish-shaped kites and flags called koi nobori(こいのぼり). Koi means carp, a kind of fish. They are usually made of white cloth decorated with solid colors. This is because of an old legend about a carp fish that swims upstream and becomes a dragon.
Click Here to read "How Koi Become Dragons".
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Outside each house there is one Koi flag for each son in the family.
The biggest Koi is for the oldest son. |
How to Create a Koi Nobori
Materials:
Construction Paper
Tissue Paper
Crepe Streamers
Scissors
Glue
Hole Puncher
Paper Plate
Brush
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| Step One: Use Colorful Tissue Paper and cut out the scales. |
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| Step Two: Prepare Glue and Brush |
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| Step Three: On the long side of the paper, apply the scales |
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| Step Four: For younger children, you can draw lines for them to follow, so that their scales overlap nicely. |
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| Step Five: After you finish the first row of scales, add in the second row of scales on top of the first. |
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| Step Six: Continue to add in additional layers of scales, overlapping each previous row. Stop when you're a little over halfway full. |
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| Step Seven: Glue a thing black strip of construction paper on top of the final row. |
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| Step Eight: Cut out the eyes for your carp, and glue them on your construction paper, spaced as shown in the photo. |
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| Step Nine: Cut a variety of colored Crepe Paper Streamer, about 2 feet in length |
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| Step Ten: Turn your paper over, trim the sides of any extra overhanging scales. DON'T trim the scales on the bottom! |
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| Step Eleven: Apply a layer of glue along the bottom edge of your paper. |
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| Step Twelve: Glue five of your Crepe Paper Streamers. |
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| Step Thirteen: Turn your paper over. |
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| Step Fourteen: Roll up your paper. Staple or Glue along the edges to keep it together. |
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| Step Fifteen: Punch holes on each side of the paper, and tie a piece of yarn to each hole. |
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| ALL DONE ! |
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On May 5th in Japan, Children's Day is celebrated pronounced Kodomo no Hi(こどもの日). This special day used to be known as Boy's Day, is now a national holiday celebrating both boys and girls. Parents pray for their children's happiness, health, and future. However, for most people, they still follow old traditions and continue to celebrate May 5th as a day only to pray for the health and happiness of their sons.
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