Shichi-Go-San [literally 7 (years)- 5 (years) – 3 (years)] is a Japanese festival where parents take their children to a shrine and offer prayers of thanks to the deities for their offspring having safely reached the age milestones of three (girls), five (boys) and seven (girls) and to ask that they enjoy future happiness and a long life. The ritual was originally restricted to members of the Imperial Court and the nobility but over the years has come to be celebrated by one and all and is today generally held around November 15.
The festival today celebrates the fact that three marks the age at which a girl has grown enough to have her hair dressed up in Japanese style; five is the age when a boy is big enough to wear a traditional “hakama” long-pleated skirt, and seven is the age at which a girl adopts the practice of wearing a “furisode” deep-sleeved kimono. |
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