Christopher and Liliana from Treehouse Montessori School, with their New Year’s messages. JENNY VYVIAL
Treehouse Montessori School celebrates every new year with Japanese Culture Week. It has always been the children’s favourite event and they look forward to it every year.
The 2012 version started with a discussion about Japanese new year and what traditional events take place at this time — Japanese families usually get together for extensive celebrations.
Each child talked about how they had spent their long holidays and their New Year’s resolutions. Having been greatly influenced by the earthquake in March, the majority of the children had resolved to help others in need much more.
The most popular part of the event took place on the second day where the children made mochi, dipped it into soy sauce, and ate it with seaweed.
Other fun things the children did included playing with traditional toys that, over time, may be forgotten in Japan. This event ended with an introduction to shuji (Japanese sumi calligraphy) and each child had the opportunity to write “shogatsu” (New Year). The children were very proud to be able to take home a beautiful piece of shuji writing. — JENNY VYVIAL
