Coming of age ceremony 2016/01/11
The second Monday of January is public holiday to celebrate 20 years old girls and boys for their Coming of age. It falls on January 11th this year.
It is warm and fine day and just suitable weather for the day because many girls attend the ceremony in traditional kimono fashion.
It used to be 1300 years old “genpuku” ceremony which celebrated noble boys and girls by changing hairs and dresses from childish style to adult fashion. In Edo era Samurai boys wore crowns and girls changed hair style, shaved eyebrows and dyed teeth which were usual fashion for adult ladies.
In old days, death rate of babies and children were very high and it was rare for babies to survive till the age of adult. Therefore, for example in Japan, they had cerebration for 3 years old, 5 years old and 7 years old. And at last, they had “genpuku” cerebration.
Owing to modern medical and hygiene improvement, it is common in developed nations for babies to reach the comings of age. Nevertheless it is still big joy and relieve for parents to watch their children’s healthy growth.
In despite of decline of death rate of babies, we are facing new troublesome unsolved problem. Sharply declining birth rate has become a big social issue nowadays and the issue reflects the declining number of comings of age. It was only 1,26million young Japanese who reached the age of 20 year old in the last year while it was 2.46 million in 1970.
It is new proposition for Japanese and all human beings why birth rate is declining in spite of wealthy and healthy life.
