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Children's Day (Japan)

Rice cakes wrapped in oak leaves and bamboo leaves, with carp streamers flying overhead.

Kodomo no Hi
Photo: Comissão de Jovens, CC BY-SA 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons

What is eaten for Children's Day (Japan)

On 5 May Japanese families fly carp streamers and wish their children strength and health. Two sweets belong to the day. Kashiwa mochi is a rice cake filled with sweet bean paste and folded in an oak leaf. The oak does not drop its old leaves until new ones grow, so it stands for a family line that continues. Chimaki is sticky rice wrapped in bamboo leaves, a relative of the Chinese zongzi eaten on the same date in the lunar calendar.

The dishes

Kashiwa mochiBean-filled rice cake in an oak leaf, for a lasting family line.ZongziCalled chimaki in Japan, sticky rice in bamboo leaves.MochiThe rice cake at the heart of both sweets.
About this page

Written by the Thali desk with AI assistance. Background: "Children's Day (Japan)" on Wikipedia. Customs differ from family to family and place to place. If this is your tradition and we have it wrong, tell us.

Photo credits on this page

The small pictures above come from Wikimedia Commons under free licences. Some are cropped to fit.

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