Children’s Day Display at Mini Time Machine Museum from April 28 to May 10

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“Tango no Sekku or Children’s Day is a Japanese national holiday celebrating the healthy growth and development of children, especially boys. The purpose of the holiday is to encourage children to grow to be strong leaders and powerful individuals. Celebrated on May 5th, Children’s Day became a national holiday in 1948. Prior to that time many people celebrated May 5th as Boy’s Day. In celebration of the holiday schools have the day off and many families plan outings to fun places like amusement parks. Preceding Children’s Day is Girl’s Day, celebrated two months prior on March 3rd. There are many comparable traditions between the two celebrations, such as setting up a tiered display of traditionally dressed dolls and accessories. These traditional displays of figures and other objects are called Musha Ningyo.

The Children’s Day Display at The Mini Time Machine Museum of Miniatures dates to the mid-20th century and was donated to the museum in 2014 by Nancy Phillips. The display will be up from April 28 through May 10, 2015.” The Museum is located at 4455 E. Camp Lowell Drive in Tucson.  Info at www.theminitimemachine.org.

13th Annual Japanese Speech Contest at UA on April 25

Go to website of Southern AZ Assn. for Japanese Education for applications, info on Cosplay event, etc. http://www.saaje.org/.  NEW LOCATION this year: University of Arizona Modern Language Building, room 350, 1423 E. University Blvd. in Tucson.

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Every year middle, high and college students compete in several fluency levels in Japanese.  Odaiko Sonora taiko drummers will be performing as well (3:15 p.m.), and the So. AZ Japanese Cultural Coalition will have a table at this event, with information about our group, and hanafuda cards to learn about & play with.  (This a popular card game in Hawaii and in South Korea, but not in Japan).