Happy Children's Day!

A couple of months ago, I wrote a blog post celebrating Hinamatsuri, or Girls' Day, which happens every March 3rd in Japan and Hawaii. Since it fell on a Thursday/blog day this year, I figured that a post would be appropriate.

There's another Japanese holiday that happens every May 5th that used to be called Boys' Day but was apparently changed to Children's Day ("Kodomo no Hi") when I wasn't looking BACK IN 1948 WHAAAT? This year, it too falls on a Thursday/blog day, hence this post.

The funny thing is that I always knew it as Boys' Day, even though I've lived literally my entire life during the time after the name was changed (I'm old, but not THAT old). Maybe Hawaii just never got the memo. Suffice it to say, though, that I completely approve of the change.

In Japan, Children's Day caps off something called Golden Week, which is the period between April 29 and May 5 in which four separate holidays are celebrated and a lot of people just generally take the entire week off. The history of Golden Week is rather complicated, with days changing and moving and being added or subtracted (during the early days of Covid it was rebranded as "Stay Home Week" and extended in both directions) but the bottom line is that it sounds like a fun time that I wish we had here in the States.

Anyway, Happy Children's Day to all!