Spring is a time for new life. Japan demonstrates this through their Hanami festival and their story of Amaterasu and Ame-No-Uzume. Hanami Hanami in Japan is a festival celebrating the blooming of cherry blossoms, harkening the arrival of spring. The festival is a time for people to assemble and picnic under the trees. They eat wagashi, traditional Japanese sweets. Some of these sweets are Daifuku, which is made from sweet rice flour that surrounds red bean paste, and Yokan, a jellied confectionery made from red or white beans, sugar, and agar, which is a type of gelatin. A traditional beverage is Sakura tea, which is tea made from cherry blossoms. Seasonally decorated teaware is also used. The festivities usually last all day and into the night. The festival dates vary by location and year because the trees blossom at different rates. Ueno Park and Yoyogi Park in Tokyo are popular spots for cherry blossom viewing. Washington D.C. is also famous for its cherry blossom festivities. Here is a link to the National Park Service’s page on cherry blossom festivals: https://www.nps.gov/subjects/cherryblossom/index.htm Ever since the Heian Period, which lasted from 794-1185, the aristocracy has given parties to view blossoming flowers. In the Azuchi Momoyama Period, which lasted from 1568-1600, viewing parties spread in popularity to the remaining population. Short plays were performed, and women would wear brightly colored kimonos. With the dawn of the age of technology, “Sakura Forecasts” were broadcasted online and on television. Today, pink dots cover maps of Japan showing where the Cherry Blossoms are. These forecasts are usually followed by information on finding the best viewing points, the areas where the seasons have finished, and where the seasons have begun. Amaterasu and Ame-no-Uzume Ame-no-Uzume or Uzume is the Shinto goddess of joy, happiness, and good health. She danced to bring the goddess of the sun, Amaterasu, back from where she was grieving. Amaterasu was hiding because her brutish brother grew jealous of her beauty and popularity and went on a rampage, killing one of Amaterasu’s sacred animals. Amaterasu felt so violated and betrayed that she ran away and hid. However, Uzume’s dancing filled Amaterasu with revelry and good humor, dissipating her grief and ensuring the return of spring and sunshine bringing life and fertility. This myth is said to be symbolism for the return of spring after a long, cold winter. Conclusion Hanami is the Japanese festival thrown for the blossoming of cherry trees. Families and friends gather underneath the beautiful flowers to enjoy the sights and the companionship. They eat traditional Japanese wagashi and drink tea made from cherry blossoms. One of the traditional stories told in Japan is that of Uzume and Amaterasu. Uzume danced to bring Amaterasu out from grieving. This story is symbolism for the return of spring, sunshine, and life. I highly encourage checking out cherry blossom festivals. Who knows, you might have one near you!
Young Bloggers
From Rags to Blankets: The Life Cycle of Clothes
Have you ever wondered about the clothes you wear? Where they come from and what happens to them when you no longer need them? Recently, I got very interested in learning more about clothes. It all started when I went with my mother to a clothing donation box in the parking lot of a small mall near our home. Every few months, she collects all our unwanted clothes in a bag and drops them off into a big box. During this trip, for the first time, I wondered what happens to all the clothes that are deposited into the box. I asked a lot of questions and found many interesting answers. Read on to find out more about the life cycle of clothes and why unwanted clothes never belong in the trash! Clothes are made from two main sources: natural and artificial. Natural sources are plant fibers like cotton, jute, bamboo, and rubber. Animal sources include silk, hide, wool, feathers and fur. Human researchers have also invented fibers such as nylon and polyester using chemicals in the lab. These are artificial fibers and are often used to make light, waterproof clothing such as sportswear and bathing suits. All these fibers require plenty of water, land and other natural resources to make. Clothing is usually made in developing countries because it is cheaper to make them there. Once the clothes are made, they get shipped to all over the world. This is how clothes get to stores near you! Once you buy a piece of clothing, several things to happen to it: ● You may not like it ● It could become well worn and even raggedy ● You could outgrow it ● It could get out of season, for example, shorts in winter and jackets in summer. ● You wash it the wrong way and it shrinks! Once you no longer need a piece of clothing: ● If it is in a good condition, it could be handed down ● You could drop it off in a donation or charity box ● You could sell it at a second-hand store ● You could throw it in the garbage can Every year, each one of us throws about 70 lbs of clothing in the trash. One pound is equal to about three tee-shirts, nine pieces of kids clothes, and one pair of shoes. These trashed clothes end up in the landfill which is a large area where the trash in buried. By throwing old clothes in the trash, it pollutes the environment and it is a waste of natural resources that went into making them. So, it is better to recycle clothes, even if they are torn and raggedy. But when we think of recycling we only think of bottles, paper and cans. Not clothes! Clothes cannot even be thrown in the regular recycling bin! So, what do we do? Even with our clothes we can practice “reduce, reuse, recycle.” If clothes become too worn out to be handed down or sold, they can get dropped off at a donation box. Companies that recycle clothes provide these boxes at many convenient locations such as parking lots, malls etc. From here, the clothes get sorted according to their condition. Many clothes are sold back to developing countries. A city called Panipat in India in nicknamed “cast-off capital” of the world. In these places: ● Ships and trucks bring in recycled clothes from all over the world ● They are sorted into reds, blues, greens and blacks, and also according to their fiber ● Workers remove zippers, buttons and bales with small knives ● Machines shred the clothes into smaller pieces and remove the fibers to make yarn. Some of the pieces are used to stuff couches and cushions. ● The yarn is used to make blankets that are sold at a very low cost. After big disasters like tsunami, earthquake or hurricane, families lose everything of theirs. These blankets are given to keep them safe and warm. This is a much better use of our torn clothes. Now, I have learned that the life cycle of clothes does not end in a trash can. It can continue to live as a warm blanket for someone in a faraway place who has lost everything. So next time I buy a new piece of clothing, I will first ask myself if it looks good on me. Then, “how can I make it look good on my planet?” This is called sustainability and we can do this as kids too!
My Fancy Cake
Do you care about style? I do. I like things that are fancy and colorful with a lot of patterns and designs. My mom thinks that I just try to make things look crazy. But I don’t. It might seem crazy to other people, but it is just what I think is pretty. I think it looks boring otherwise. When it was time to choose the cake for my Bat Mitzvah, I made sure that it looked the way I wanted it, with many colors and patterns. Let me tell you what happened. The sliding door slid open and my mom and I walked into the store. My bat mitzvah was next week and we were going to order a fancy three tiered cake for the party. I was super excited because a fancy cake was one of things that I really wanted. I first decided that I wanted a fancy cake, when I saw one at my friend’s Bar Mitzvah. It really grabbed my attention. It was beautiful, and I knew I wanted mine to be just as spectacular. We weren’t going to make everything in my party fancy, but my mom said I could choose to make one thing fancy. The cake would be my thing to have however I liked it. I thought it was a crucial element to make the celebration really festive. I could just picture it. It would be dazzling and magnificent and exquisite. It would sit in the center of the table. Everyone would love it. It would be just as I hoped. I knew what it would look like too. I had a vision from the beginning. My family and I discussed it to make sure they liked the design too. We planned it all out before we went to the store. Planning it out took a long time, since my mom disagreed with me on many things. The design I wanted was going to have three different colors for each layer and flowers cascading over it. My mom thought that flowers were nice, but she wanted three shades of one color instead of three different colors. “Mom, I want it to be colorful.” I said over and over. “How about three shades of yellow?” she asked. “You want yellow, so let’s do three shades of yellow. It will look much more elegant.” “Mom, I don’t want it to be elegant. I want it to be colorful.” I kept repeating. She kept saying that it was my cake, but I still had to convince her. “ Look,” she said, showing me a picture of a cake online. “Here is a picture of a cake with three shades of yellow. Isn’t it pretty?” “How about this picture?” I asked. “These are the colors I want.” When my mom saw the picture, she admitted it looked nice and agreed to go with my way. Then we talked about many other things. The leaves would be light green not dark green. The flowers would be red. The yellow layer would be on top followed by coral, and then gold. My mom and I had discussed every tiny little detail. We had talked and talked until we came up with the perfect cake. But, now we were done. My mom had agreed to go with the cake I wanted. Placing the order at the store would be easy. I followed my mom to the bakery section of the store. We looked at the book of designs and quickly flipped through the options. The exact design we were going to have wasn’t there. But it wasn’t a problem. We quickly found a similar one. We then started looking at the colors to make sure they had what we wanted. They had everything. We were having yellow, coral, and gold layers with red roses and light green leaves. Everything was set. We were about to fill out the form when we noticed something. This cake also had dots piped around each layer and we never talked about their color. I flipped through the colors again. “How about teal?” I asked. I thought that teal would add one more pretty color to the design. My mom frowned. “Teal?”, she asked. “How about orange, or something that matches.” “I don’t want it to be too monochromatic,” I replied. “Fine,” my mom said. “It is your cake. Choose whatever you want. I am staying out of it.” I could tell she was not pleased. I thought teal would look nice. But I was not sure. It is hard to pick something when I feel like no one else thinks it is nice. Then again, orange would be boring. My mom did say I could choose. I stared at the colors and tried to imagine the cake and decide. “Mom what do you think,” I asked her again. “Whatever you want,” she said again in an exasperated tone. “Fine,” I decided. “Then teal.” I was not sure, but I decided to go with my instinct. I wanted the cake to be colorful not boring. It would make my party much more festive. The dots would be teal. The next Friday, I was super excited as I got into the car after school. “Give me your phone,” I told my mom. She had picked up the cake and delivered it to the synagogue for the next day while I was in school and I had reminded her, 10,000 times, to take a picture so that I could get to see it immediately. As she handed me the phone she said, “It is even nicer than you could have imagined.” As I looked at the picture, I saw that she was right. It was beautiful. Even my mom admitted that the teal was a good choice and that she was glad we went with it. I was glad too. I was really pleased with how the cake came out. Everyone at the party liked it. It was gorgeous. It was colorful and flowery
