SHICHIGOSAN – early birds’special campaign starts!
5-year-old boys wear a kimono like this on SHICHIGOSAN.
SHICHIGOSAN is the Japanese traditional event on November 15th for parents to celebrate a child’s growth. It literally stands for 7, 5, and 3 and it’s an annual celebration for three- and seven- year-old girls and three- and five-year-old boys. It is common to make children in those ages wear Japanese traditional kimonos and visit a shrine. Also, many families take this occasion to have their picture taken at a photo studio as memory.
You can easily imagine that November is the SHICHIGOSAN high season for kimono rental shops and photo studios and they are terribly busy. Therefore, it’s getting popular for many photo studios, which also provide kimono rental service, to hold a special campaign for the early birds, which starts in May in many cases. The campaign includes not only special discount. But also, for example, you can get a key holder the child’s picture is printed on, a special designed picture frame, and so on.
All of us wore kimonos on this occasion, just for a photo.
My elder son is turning to be five this fall. My family and I decided to be one of the early birds! During the Golden week in May, all of our family wore kimono and had our family picture taken at a photo studio. We appreciated the early bird’s discount as well as other special service. We received the album of my son’s picture and of our family this month.
Some children wear kimono again in November to visit a shrine and pray. My elder son is not going to wear a kimono this fall. Instead, we are going to a Christian church to thank God for my son’s growth. Notably, many Christian churches (both of Catholic and Protestant) in Japan have some kind of celebration for children during SHICHIGOSAN season in November.
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