May 5th is Boy's Day

So in Hawaii they celebrate Boy’s Day, which is a Japanese tradition, and is now officially called Children‘s Day to be fair. But everyone still calls it Boy’s Day of course. And actually there IS a Girl’s Day, which was on March 3rd. These holidays are to celebrate the children with the giving of small toys and cards, and decorations are made and displayed: paper dolls and flowers for girls, carp banners (symbolizing healthy young boys--see photo) and kabuto (war helmets) for boys.


Hmmm… a holiday celebrated by the giving of small toys and cards… Do NOT tell Hallmark about this! Or the Wal-Mart corporation!

The first I heard of this was when Boo, my seven-year-old daughter, came home a couple of months ago and said that it was Girl’s Day at school today. She showed me a paper doll in a kimono that she’d made and said that the boys had to let the girls go first today and put up the girls’ chairs at the end of the day. She was pretty happy about it, obviously. I kind of assumed her teacher had made this up. I asked her if there was a Boy’s Day too, and she said there was, but not for two months. Boo said, very seriously, that she’d probably want to absent that day.

Her older sister confirmed that this was an actual holiday, and I looked it up online.

http://www.associatedcontent.com/article/230162/japanese_holidays_imported_to_the_hawaiian.html?cat=40

The article explained the history of these holidays in Japan, which was interesting, and then suggested that we in the U.S. should celebrate our children more, and focus more of our love and devotion on them, so that they would be more like Japanese children. That’s where she lost me, I have to say.

Honestly, I don’t think ANYONE lavishes more love and devotion onto their children than Americans. Many experts agree that’s the PROBLEM with American kids, that they grow up thinking they’re the center of the universe because of all the LOVE and DEVOTION they get. I mean seriously! I think there’s a little more to the success of the Japanese children than one day of celebration a year!

You know, when I was a child I asked my mom why there was no Kid’s Day. I said, “There’s a Mother’s Day, a Father’s Day, even a Grandparent’s Day. Why isn’t there a Kid’s Day?” She said, “Every day is Kid’s Day. Now go clean your room.” (I’m kidding about that last part of course. I think.)

Interestingly, my husband says he asked his mom the same thing as a kid and received the same answer! What, was it in the Parents’ Manual, Nineteen-Seventies' Edition?

But now that I’m the mom, I can see what our mothers were saying. Every day IS Kid’s Day! I mean, their meals are made for them, their clothes are washed for them, they get driven anywhere they want to go… It’s every adult’s dream!

But I do think Boy’s Day and Girl’s Day are a fun idea after all. Even if just to make the kids do something for each other, like put up the chairs at the end of the school day.

And Boo is NOT allowed to be absent tomorrow!