Shichigosan

It was an extra special day today in Flowers class because we dressed up in special clothes and had a special photo shoot together. We would like to extend our warm wishes to all the families who celebrated “Thanksgiving Day” today.  It is always good to be thankful. It is always good to have a time to thank and embrace those who enrich our lives, especially our moms and dads who provide food, shelter, and everything that we need.  Most of all, we are thankful for their unconditional love. Happy Thanksgiving, everyone!

We are also grateful to have Ak-san (Ky and R’s mom) Sa-san (Hi’s mom) and Sa-san for coming to prepare us for our special Shichigosan photo shoot. They put on a special kimono for girls and hakama for boys. Thank you so much for this wonderful opportunity of wearing kimono and hakama.

Morning Activities 

Making crafts and playing hammer and nails made our morning quite busy. We continued working on our name snowman that we will use next month as decors in our classroom. First, we cut out circles of white construction paper to resemble snow. Next, we wrote each letter of our name in the corresponding circles. Some of us were amazed to see how long our names were when we counted the total letters we have in our name. For the final touches on our crafts, we decorated the face using colorful buttons, foam sticks, textile materials for the scarf and colored matchsticks.

Circle Time 

Since we didn’t have time to go out to the park, we thought of doing some actions to keep our body moving. We jumped up high, hopped on one foot, turned around, clapped our hands, and made small and big circles using our bodies. When everyone was ready, we took turns in sharing something about what we did today and why we dressed up in special clothes. One of us said, “He dressed up like a samurai”. We also thought the special sandals and socks that we wore looked like rabbits!

Ky: Take picture kimono and Hakone (hakama).

Hi: Make-up

A: Because Shichigosan. 

Ky: Kimono is not like buttons and zip.

Hi: When I was a baby, I did Shichigosan.

We all wondered how come kimono does not have any zipper at all.

 Ti: It’s because people in Japan, a lone time ago wear it that’s why there’s no buttons. 

Au: We tied the rope so it don’t fall off.

Be: It’s tight when you get older, it doesn’t make sense.

Ha: Kimono is so beautiful.

Ka: I took a picture in the wall with kimono. One time when I’m five and one time when I was little. I did hair like Elsa.

On our question of the day (Are you 7, 5, or 3 years old? we noticed that only a few of us are 7, 5 and 3 years old. We were interested to hear more about shichigosan, so we listened to some of our friends who shared that they had celebrated Shichigosan before. A and Ka told us that they had been to a special place and took photo on the wall. Ka even showed us her family photo wearing kimono on our family tree.

Liezel then showed us some photos about Shichigosan. We saw children dressed in special kimono and hakama with their mom and dad in front of a shrine. Da shared that he had been to one of the shrines here in Japan. Yes, you might see some children wearing kimono and hakama who visit shrine with their family during autumn in Japan. We learned that this is in connection with the celebration of Shichigosan. Shichigosan celebrates children turning 7, 5 and 3 years old. This stems from a Japanese belief that children of these ages visit the shrine for blessing to have healthy and long life. Along with the traditional clothing, children also take a special candy called chitose ame which goes in a special bag. In fact, we made our own chitose bag that our teachers sent home today.

 Please don’t forget to check our photos to see our Shichigosan pictures😊

 Have a nice evening everyone!

 Love,

Flowers