This is a fertility festival. Childless couples attend this festival praying at the temple for children. This festival is religiously serious. In Japan, all those who haven’t had sex for a year, have it during the festive season. Prostitutes provide free sex to their customers, especially singles as a souvenir to the festivities.
Foreigners have described this in sexual terms and younger generations attend for fun. You will find couples cradling a symbolic wooden penis while following the procession around towns. There are some in the boxes that one can buy from the temple and have it blessed.
Wives who wish for a child keep this in their purses like an amulet. Please respect this practice not only religiously but for the couples who are trying to have children and want a family.
Month: April 2016
LIKE A GIRL
There’s a little girl in my heart,
Who’s soft and pink and afraid.
Afraid, for if she comes out,
She won’t be able to live.
They say, “you’re such a boy”
Without analysing how inevitable it is for victory.
For you see, I won’t be able to listen to guys’ conversations “like a girl”,
Lest, I’ll be offended.
I can’t run and throw on the field “like a girl”,
Lest I’ll be mocked at.
I can’t not study and shop “like a girl”,
Lest, I’ll be tagged unambitious.
Part of growing up as a “girl”,
Was to realize that you ought to be “like a guy” in this society to be successful;
Because guys can un-listen patriarchy,
Girls, Ah! They’re too delicate to “misbehave”
-D. Sharma
Damini's Blog 