Boys' Day

For most Americans, they have gotten used to celebrating the Mexican Independence Day, Cinco de Mayo but for my family and many other Japanese families, we celebrate Boys' Day.

Just like Girls' Day on March 3rd, Boys' Day on May 5th, is to celebrate and honor the boys of our culture. In 1948, the government changed both holidays and now call it Children's Day but old habits die hard with parents that grew up in the era of change and they passed on the knowledge of the original holidays.

To celebrate, the homes that had boys would fly these fish flags called Koinobori. Koi is carp and and nobori means to climb (Chinese legend that a carp that swims upstream becomes a dragon and the way the flags blow in the wind looks like they are swimming). The top black fish represents the father of the house and then how ever many fishes under it represented how many boys the father has.

In the house, many would also display the kabuto, which is the helmet worn by samurai in the old days as well as the uniform, as shown below.

Kampai (cheers) to the boys!