1. 七五三 （しちごさん） Shichi-go-san (Children’s day) 十いちがつ 十五にち Alyssa Lybbert

2. Practice/ Products 7- Girl wears first kimono 5- Boy first hakama pants in public 3- Boys and Girls are allowed to let their hair grow Go to shrine to celebrate the growth of children. Parents often give their children chitose ame (thousand years candy) Which shows their hope for a long life.

3. Perspective The reasoning for this… The festival started during the Heian period when Shogun (Tsunayoshi Tokugawa) was celebrating the growth of his son on November 15th, which soon spread across Japan. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B9lhEmtMOwc

4. Surprised me that… …they get candy for this day. I didn’t find reasoning for the candy sticks.

5. I found it interesting that… …there’s a certain day that’s appropriate for a young girl to start wearing a kimono.

6. Is there any holiday like this in the U.S.? I suppose that you could say Halloween is like this, in the sense that we dress up and get candy, but the meaning and everything is completely different. So no, we don’t really have a holiday like this.