Babies 1st Birthday In Japan How To Celebrate?

The day has come & it seems like yesterday ...9/11 of the present year,we celebrated my precious grand daughter's first birthday!And like other babies in every other part of the country,Japan has also has its own tradition & a special custom for all the one year olds on their first birthday w/c is celebrated only once in a lifetime.
In other countries when you said fisrt birthday you'll expect a great birthday party, a huge birthday cake,lots of balloons,visitors & even clowns.
In Japan though birthday cakes may still be present for some families, Japanese parents celebrate their kids’ special day with one or a pair of pounded rice cake with the traditional colors of pink & white.

2 kilograms of pounded rice cake with a traditonal colors of pink & white

The birthday rice cake called by many names but I only know is for Kyushu in which where I live at the present now.And in my place it is known　as "mochi fumi" or rice cake stepping.

2 kilograms of pounded rice cake strapped to the childs back.
That’s a heavy load!My grand daughter felt very uncomfortable and start crying almost immediately. And as if that ain’t bad enough, the parents’ role is to PREVENT the child from walking smoothly by deliberately stumble them with a light push. Oh No! What an unthinkable way to dampen a child’s birthday celebration!
Japanese believed that life is never a smooth ride, but full of ups and downs, so it is better to let your buttercup knows that it’s okay to stumble along the way.And by carrying out this odd (and brief) ritual, good-intended parents wish for their precious child all through her/his life to be blessed with health, food.It also represents perfection, harmony, peace, smoothness, completeness, satisfaction as well as integrity. Such a positive word. I do pray that Baby will have all these wonderful qualities.Please watch the video below.

And not to forget the erabitori or "pick & keep an item ,"A Peek Into The Future.This is another part of the “First Birthday” Japanese custom .We had a few items set before her. It is said that the first thing that Baby select will show her/his calling, a tendency towards a specific.And we prepared the following & its meaning so please watch the video below.

Pen -Writer

Money or Wallet -Blessed with abundance of wealth/property
Dictionary/book- Excellence academic performance / Person with extensive knowledge
Hair brush-stylist
and we also added cellular phone on the lists

My precious grand daughter picked the cellular phone first.Thus mean that she'll be a telephone operator someday?Then her second choice was the hair brush.We laughed at the thought that she'll be a stylist someday.^^

Finally our birthday bash's special event wont be completed w/o her birthday cake & the blowing of the candle with the help of her father.^^
Happy first birthday to my very precious grand daughter!