Girls Day and Hatted Cats

In Hawaii March 3 is Girls Day. The tradition comes from the Japanese Girls Day called Hinamatsuri. Japan has done away with Girls Day now. They turned the former Boys Day (May 5) into Children's Day. But in Hawaii we still celebrate them separately. The older tradition of Girls Day was centered on doll collections started for daughters at birth. The doll collections symbolized proper girl values. The display could be up to seven tiers. It had to be taken down by March 3, or the tale was that girls would never marry. Now tradition centers around giving your daughter a gift. At our school the girls dress up in kimonos. All of the kids painted little dolls with candy and traditional cookies.


On March 3 we also celebrated Read Across America. Traditionally it is celebrated on March 2, in honor of Dr. Seuss's birthday. Our school serves a big green eggs and ham breakfast for the kids. My neighbor was sweet enough to serve Son1. She also served him a chocolate milk. Ooh he had this guilty look on his face, and he sat and stared at the chocolate milk for a long time. His teacher only allows the kids to drink white milk. I only allow white milk. Remember me, with the cavity ego? He occasionally gets chocolate milk when his daddy treats him. Well, he only took a bite or two of his eggs. Even though I told him he could drink the chocolate milk he was well aware that he knew I normally would not let him drink chocolate milk! He probably had all of two or three sips!