The7-5-3
Festival七五三The Japan Society | Education Resources| education@japansociety.org.uk| www.japansociety.org.uk© TheJapan Society (2020)

The 7-5-3 Festival is an annual celebration held on November
15. The festival is celebrated by families with daughters aged 3
and 7 and sons aged 3 and 5. This is because the ages 3, 5, and7 were important milestones for children in the past.
Children who are celebrating the festival get dressed in theirbest clothes and visit a shrine with their family. At the shrine,
the family will pray for the future health and happiness of thechildren and have a priest bless them.

Festival Clothes
Many children will get dressed up in traditional Japanese clothing for the festival andhave their photo taken. Both boys and girls can wear a kimono, which looks like a robe,
and zori sandals on their feet. In the past, boys started wearing hakama trousers overtheir kimono at age 5, and girls started wearing a more traditional obi belt at age 7.
Nowadays, not everyone will wear Japanese clothing; some children will wear a smart
suit or dress instead.

Question 1: Can you label the items of clothing correctly below?
(Answers can be found on next page).

A.
B.
C.
D.

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Chitose ame 千歳飴
Children receive sweets called chitose ame (chee-toh-say-ah-may ) during the 7-5-3 festival. The name means “one thousandyear sweets” and they are given to children to wish them good
fortune, good health and a long and successful life.
The sweets are long and thin sticks which represent the wish for a happyand long life, and are coloured in red and white which represent good
fortune in Japanese culture.
The chitose ame are usually sold in long thin bags and you can often
see children carrying the bags whilst visiting shrines during the festival.
Traditionally the bags are decorated with pictures of turtles, a type ofJapan.

Read the descriptions below - can you guess what the meanings ofthe symbols are? (Answers are on the next page).
Cranes (tsuru) are big birds with a long neck. They canoften be found in Japanese myths and stories. It is said thatthey live for at least 1,000 years.

Turtles (kame) can live for many years. In Japan, It is often
said that they live for at least 10,000 years! They can befound in many Japanese myths and stories too.

Pines (matsu) are evergreen trees, which means they donʼt
shed leaves or turn brown in winter and stay green all yearround.

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Answers to Question 1: A: Kimono; B: Obi; C: Hakama; D: Zori.

bird called a crane, or other things which have special meanings inshichi gosanKanji Characters
In Japanese the festival is called ʻShichi- go- sanʼ and it is written like this: 七五三
Can you guess what each character means? It means 7-5-3! Practice writing them

七五 三
七五 三

Shichi means ʻsevenʼ②①

Go means ʻﬁveʼ
①③④

San means ʻthreeʼ①②②*Sen means ʻthousandʼ①③②③*千, which means ʻthousandʼ, is pronounced ʻsenʼ in Japanese on its own, but cansometimes be pronounced as ʻchiʼ when it is together with other words.

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Answer to Question 2 : They all represent good health and a long, happy, successful life.

below ﬁrst by following the stroke order to trace the characters, then try on your own.

Activity: Make a Chitose ame Bag!
You will need:• Scissors• Colouring pencils or felt tips
• Sellotape or glue
• Optional: stickers, sequins, coloured paperInstructions:
1. Cut out the template (on the last page) to make your bag.
2. Cut out and colour the handles. Attach the handles with glue or
sellotape. (You can also make the handles with coloured paper).
3. Decorate your bag however you like. You can colour the kanji
characters and illustrations below and stick them on the bag. Or
you can draw your own designs or copy some of the illustrations
and write 7, 5 and 3 in Japanese yourself.

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Bag Handles© The Japan Society (2020) | www.japansociety.org.uk | education@japansociety.org.uk

Chito-se Ame Bag Template
Instructions:

1. Cut out bag and handle.
2. Fold ﬂaps ① and ② in and put glue on the back.
3. Fold inside back ③ in along the dotted line and make sure the bottom and side
are glued to ﬂaps ① and ②.
4. Glue handles to top of outside front and outside back.
fold here

fold here

fold here① Bottom ﬂap. Glue here.

© The Japan Society (2020) | www.japansociety.org.uk | education@japansociety.org.uk② Side Flap. Glue here.

Inside Front.
Colour on other side.

③ Inside Back.