Today,
May 5th is Boys’ Festival Day which is one of the traditional seasonal
events in Japan. Families with little boys would display a Samurai
armor, a traditional doll of a great man, or carp shaped wind streamers at home to ensure their sons' good future.
Also there is a seasonal sweet for this day, and it is one kind of rice cakes called Kashiwa-mochi. Kashiwa means a name of a Japanese oak tree, the sweet is wrapped by an oak leaf, so it is called Kashiwa-mochi(Oak-rice-cake). The Difference from the cherry blossoms rice cake is that people don’t eat the oak leaf. The oak leaf has the meaning of wishing for prosperity.
Moreover, traditionally people take a bath scented with one kind of Japanese iris leaves. Since old times it has been said that the plant can get rid of evil thing, so people soak this leaves in their bath and pray for their health. Once a year, only for this day Japanese supermarkets sell the iris leaves like the one in the photos.
Also there is a seasonal sweet for this day, and it is one kind of rice cakes called Kashiwa-mochi. Kashiwa means a name of a Japanese oak tree, the sweet is wrapped by an oak leaf, so it is called Kashiwa-mochi(Oak-rice-cake). The Difference from the cherry blossoms rice cake is that people don’t eat the oak leaf. The oak leaf has the meaning of wishing for prosperity.
Moreover, traditionally people take a bath scented with one kind of Japanese iris leaves. Since old times it has been said that the plant can get rid of evil thing, so people soak this leaves in their bath and pray for their health. Once a year, only for this day Japanese supermarkets sell the iris leaves like the one in the photos.
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