Japanese Traditions #1: Birthdays

Happy Birthday!!! O tanjo-bi omedeto!!!

Every culture has a different way of celebrating a birthday. Since I am mostly interested in the Japanese culture, I will be talking about how they celebrate their big day.
There are a few birthdays that are in particular considered very important. 


Shichi-go-san (七五三): this is a festival for three, five, and seven year old children. On this day, the parents are supposed to dress their children in a kimono a taking them to the local shrine. This is called the rite of passage celebration and dates back to the Heian period.

7 yr old girl, 5 yr old boy, and 3 yr old girl.

Hatachi (二十歳): this is for twenty year olds and it is basically a celebration of becoming an adult. A person is now allowed to vote and drink.

I love the outfits that they wear on their birthday! >///<

Kanreki (還暦): all sixty year olds celebrate this day by having a party with a cake decorated with red turtles and white cranes. The red turtles represents 10,000 years and the cranes are a symbol of 1,000 years. The sixty year old is also given a red jacket (chanchanko) that symbolizes the beginning of life.

A lot of 60 yr olds!!!

Kiju (喜寿): the seventy-seventh birthday is the occasion of the "happy age".

Those hats are interesting!

Beiju (米寿): this is the eighty-eighth birthday and is also known as the "rice age" because the character for rice in Chinese looks like the characters for eight tens plus eight.

They seriously aged really well.

...and finally...
Hakuju (白寿): this is known as the "white age" and is celebrated for the ninety- ninth birthday.

I really like this picture for some reason.