Juugoya night

Hi! This is Mao SHIMIZU from EDC1.

Did you see the moon on September 22nd? In this year, September 22nd is a night with a full moon called Juugoya. We can enjoy the moon tonight! This is a picture of the tonight moon.

According to the old calendar it is on September 15^th, so we call the day “Juugo (15) ya”. September night is usually in clear, so we can see the beautiful moon. In the old days, theJapanese aristocracy used to compose traditional Japanese poetry called WAKA or TANKA by enjoying the September moon. Today I’m going to tell you about what I did tonight.

In my town, under 12 children visit almost all of the houses to get some snacks, sweets, steamed buns (Manjuu) or dumpling (Dango) at Juugoya night. This is a local custom of my town, so I used to do in my elementary school days. So, tonight, my family and I prepared some snacks for children visiting. Children seemed to be happy with having many items.

We also prepared Japanese pampas grass, Susuki, to offer to the moon. This custom comes from Edo period and is to wish a good harvest.

By the way, my town custom is similar to Halloween, isn’t it? However, children in my town haven’t disguised themselves… What an interesting custom!