English

Nani kitemo

utsukushi unaru

tsukimi kana

Haiku by Chiyo-ni

As you gaze at the moon, whatever you wear it makes you more beautiful by Chiyo-ni

In late September, and begining of october matching with the lunar calendar we celebrate Jugoya or Tsukimi, Autumn festival to observe the moon.

The moon has a great importance in Japanese culture, because it has a connection with the nature and the harvests. So in Japan we celebrate the Tsukimi for centuries, the festival to observe the moon.

On that day we prepare some special sweets and traditional foods like Dango (rice cake)

However, before eating those, we make a nice display with them as an offering to the the moon.

Do you know that if you look at the moon you can see the figure of a rabbit? There is a legend that says there was a God showing up as a starving old man asking to some animales to bring some food. All animals brought him food except the rabbit, the rabbit was not good at hunting so could not find any food. so the rabbit offered its own body to the old man jumping into the fire. The God was so impressed by the rabbit nature,so he let the rabbit to live in the moon for ever for all of us to see it as an example of virtue. The Tsukimi day is the best day to see the rabbit in the moon, I hope that all of you try to find the rabbit from all around the world and celebrate the Tsukimi.

In Kyoto there are many temples that open at night to observe the moon you can and there are different festivals visit the tourist informantion center of Kyoto

There is also a traditional song about tsukimi and the rabbit. We learn how to sing it in the primary school.