combing images
reciting ancient verses,
tots play patty-cake
© Tournesol ’15
CP Card Games (Karuta)
combing cards (haiga)
combing images
Tag: New Year’s
a father’s blessing (haibun)
New Year’s Eve was exciting when I was a child up to early teens. There were traditions, like being the first to say Happy New Year to your parents or calling them on the phone if they were out at a friend’s celebrating, I would dial all the numbers (on a rotary phone of course) and not release the last number until the stroke of midnight and beat my father to wish my mom Happy New Year.
But the real excitement (for me at that time) was beating my sister to reach my father so he could bless me for the New Year. I would kneel in front of him wherever he was in the house and he would make the sign of the cross over my head and then kiss me on my forehead.
We were only two in the family so it was not really a grand event. In my mom’s family there were seven children and they would all gather in the living room on New Year’s Day and GrandPapa would bless them as well as my grandmother. It was sort of like a good omen for the new year. I suppose if you went to mass or church services and the minister or priest blessed you before you left it might feel the same but New Year’s was special for that reason for me.
children kneel in wait
in the name of the Father,
blessing a New Year
(c) Tournesol ’14
New Year’s Fun (haibun) (CarpeDiem #526 Issa (5), “New Year’s Writing”)
It is a Japanese custom to write with a writing brush on the second day of the year.
New Year’s Eve was always a special time for me as an older child. I used to babysit with my best friend her little brother at her house. We were allowed to stay up until way past midnight, drink cola and eat chips! Something I was never allowed at home unless there was a party. Her parents were having a New Year’s Eve “reveillons” with my parents at my home. About 30 seconds to midnight I would dial (in those days we had rotary phones!) and wait until midnight before letting go of the last digit of my home phone number, to be the FIRST to wish my mom and dad Happy New Year’s.
Another race New Year’s for our family was to be the first to ask our father (grandfather in my mother’s case) to be blessed for the new year. I always felt extra special if I got to my dad before my sister. At my grandparents, however, all seven children knelt in the living room as my grandfather blessed them all ONCE. {My grandmother, actually took over this role when my grandfather died even if she was a woman.}
If there was not too much snow, we often went out behind my grandparents’ home to ice skate on the river. Those were wonderful times when it was safe to do this as the winters were cold for many months, not like today where we get rain at Christmas.
I was saddened reading about Issa’s childrens’ passing so early in life. But I am pleased he wrote poems of laughter and joyous times in their memory.
kodomora ga kitsune no mane mo susuki kana
the children
pretend to be foxes…
pampas grass
© Kobayashi Issa
New Year’s Eve
children playing with the fresh fallen snow –
fireworks coloring the sky
© Chèvrefeuille
I will be writing in that youthful joyous vein.
Guy Lombardo
ringing in the New Year
got Mom first
Santa’s new skates
on the moonlit river
Dad blessed me first.
© Tournesol ’14/07/27
Submitted for: Carpe Diem Haiku Kai, #526, Issa,(5) “New Year’s Writing”
Tournesol dans un Jardin 
