While visiting Japan, we came across Chitose River. When we went to take a closer look, we saw lots of dolls floating with the current. At first, we thought the river was a garbage dump, but then we remembered that there was a holiday called Hina Matsuri, where people bless young girls with dolls and then throw the dolls in rivers. While thinking about this, we were reminded of the other unique holidays of Japan. One of the strange holidays we remembered was the Naki Sumo festival.

The Naki Sumo festival is a holiday where sumo wrestlers pick up their babies and someone tries to make the babies cry. The first baby to cry then wins the contest. The Japanese celebrate this because they believe that crying a lot can help the babies have a longer and happier life. This tradition seemed really strange to us at first, because we thought that crying a lot was a bad thing, and would make the babies have sadder lives.

Some other interesting holidays in Japan are the Setsubun and the Mamemaki Bean Throwing Festival. These two holidays are very similar, because they both have to do with bean throwing and keeping demons away. The main difference between Setsubun and the Mamemaki Bean Throwing Festival is that Setsubun rituals are performed by the parents and older people, while the Mamemaki Bean Throwing Festival is for younger children to prepare for the Setsubun.

We thought the Japanese holidays were strange and interesting, and learning about them was a very fun experience.

"知らぬが仏"

--Not knowing is buddha, sometimes, its better to not know the real truth