October
The young boar festival
November
Expedition
The children undertake a six kilometer roundtrip
walk to Namitaki Fujiwara park. An
expedition on foot during this season is a significant spiritual preparation to
welcome December’s winter solstice and the coming new year. By traveling
through the colored trees, using their own strength, and thoroughly enjoying
nature, the children experience a leap in spiritual and physical growth. They
also demonstrate mutual support and encouragement toward one another.
December
Pounding rice cake
In preparation for the new year, we make pounded
rice cakes, in which the god of the new year is believed to dwell. Pounded rice
cakes are made of glutinous rice from our earlier harvest. Fathers vigorously
pound the steamed rice many times, using a pestle in a big mortar. We make
round mirror-shaped rice cakes, round rice cakes for the Tondo Festival, and small rice cakes for school lunch. After they
have been pounded, we all eat freshly-made rice cakes that the children have
formed into round shapes. The rice cakes are soft and delicious, owing to the
earlier efforts of the children’s fathers in pounding the rice.
The
Spiral of Light
The winter solstice
is the day with the shortest daylight hours in the year. It’s also the turning point that the sunlight
is getting stronger. It’s the day to
turn on a light of love and that of life to our heart in the darkness. In the Advent Garden with a spiral pathway,
each child walks into the spiral and ignites his or her beeswax candle when one
reaches at the end of the spiral. The
candle was crafted by dipping into melted beeswax was grown layer by layer
every day. Once a child returns the
pathway, place the candle somewhere of the spiral by their own decision. Putting a lightened candle at “the place”
symbolize that a child will live on earth with a will as an individual and each
child was born having a meaning of one’s life and bright on earth. Japanese
also has been celebrating the winter solstice from the ancient as a revival of
the Sun.
New Year’s Bonfire ceremony (Tondo-Festival)
New Year’s Bonfire is a ceremony that people
in the regional community assemble bamboo of a symbol of vitality, burn it with
New Year’s decorations e.g. rice-straw and rounded rice cakes in order to
welcome the God of New Year descending to our ordinary world, and then see off
the God ascending to upper world with the rising smoke. People eat rice cakes
baked with the fire from the burning bamboo praying for good health of the
year. SAKURA participate in the ceremony
held in the regional community.
February
Bean-scattering ceremony (Setsubun)
The bean-scattering ceremony is held
the night preceding the first day of spring on the lunar calendar. On this day,
people throw roasted soybeans to drive away the severity of winter and the evil
spirits before spring arrives. Throwing beans vigorously, while shouting “Demon
out, good luck in!” helps to expel any “demons” inside the body. Then, people
eat special big sushi rolls (Eho-maki)
into which happiness is rolled, so that positive energy can enter the body.
First the bad is discharged, then good luck can enter. We can thereby find
rhythm in the ancient customs.
March
The
Doll’s Festival (Literally, Peach Festival)
The Doll’s Festival was originally the
occasion to cleanse people’s body by stroking with human-shaped figure made of
human hair and rice-straw to transfer impurity of mind and body, then let the
figures float down a river. At SAKURA,
children make a small doll by cutting a traditional paper and stroke body each
other with it and let dolls float down a river.
After the cleansing event, children eat a festive sushi with various
toppings sprinkled over rice to celebrate children’s healthy growth, and soup
of clams, which is believed to live in only clean water, and drink sweet sake
of traditional and non-alcohol to gain vital spirit. For parents, the day is a good opportunity to
look back themselves at the end of a school year and to have anticipation for
getting a good start from Spring.
In March, the moment spring is just coming, SAKURA
invites parents to have a plum blossom viewing party with children. First, children have a circle time for body
movements expressing what they experienced through the year and singing verses,
while parents appreciate the circle time and see children’s growth of the
year. Then go to a plum tree garden and
enjoy eating a lunch box with viewing blossoms. We hope parents and children
will have great memories at the end of a school year.
The
children participate in the gathering of other seasonal produce throughout the
year, including picking “ume”
(Japanese apricots), “kaki” (Japanese
persimmons), and figs, digging up bamboo shoots and sweet potatoes, and
gathering nuts.
In
addition to rice cultivation, the children also experience seasonal tasks required
in the fields to produce vegetables.