Flying Fish in Okinawa

For the past few weeks, I have noticed something flying in the air around here. They are flying from telephone poles, houses, rooftops, flagpoles, and strewn up onto nets over looking the ocean and rivers. What in the world am I speaking of, you ask? Well, the flying objects are none other than: Carp flags! Carp, as in the fish Carp, to be precise. I thought they were Koi fish, but apparently Carp and Koi both represent extremely different things here in Japan. The locals celebrate a holiday called "Golden Week," and this brings people from all over Japan out into the towns, villages and cities for shopping, eating and celebrating. It has been NUTS around here at the local stores, and the children are also out of school for the week as well.

One of the days which happens to be my favorite is called "Kodomo No Hi," or (Children's Day,) where families raise colorful carp-shaped "Koinobori" flags, one for each member of the family. The largest carp flag represents the father, followed by the mother and smaller carp to represent children. The carp are famous for fighting their way upstream, which is why they are used as the symbol for the fighting spirit, efforts and success. I did not know that in the old tradition years ago, families with boys only flew the carp flags outside their homes and that this day was also called boys day. Today, however families with boys or girls fly the carps, and the celebrations are open to girls too.

A few of the homes in our neighborhood have been flying the carp flags in the last few days, and I know that all of the homes have young boys in the house- but no girls... Interestingly enough, the number of fish that are flying outside the homes does actually correlate to the number of children in the house. Hope y'all enjoy the pictures~