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| Kanji for special birthdays |
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Japan has several birthdays which are considered to have specialmeanings.
The third, fifth, and seventh birthdays are the occasions ofshichi-go-san (七五三), a festival for three and seven-year-oldgirls and five-year-old boys.
The twentieth birthday, Hatachi (二十歳), is the age when aperson is considered to become an adult, and can vote and drinkalcohol.
The sixtieth birthday is the occasion of kanreki (還暦), whenfive cycles of the Chinese zodiac, the jikkan jūnishi (seeWhat is the Jikkan jūnishi?), have completed, and the person is said to bereborn. During kanreki, the birthday person has a party with acake decorated with white cranes and red turtles. The white cranes area symbol of 1,000 years, and the red turtle represents 10,000 years. Asleeveless red jacket is given to the 60 year old. This jacket iscalled a chanchanko and it represents a baby's jacket and areturn to the beginning of life.
The seventy-seventh birthday is the occasion of kiju (喜寿),"happy age", because the kanji 喜 is written in a way similar toseven-ten-seven or seven-seven-seven in the sōsho calligraphicstyle. (See Handwritten styles)
The eighty-eighth birthday is the occasion of beiju (米寿),"rice age", because the Chinese character for rice, 米, looks like thecharacters for eight tens plus eight (八十八).
The ninety-ninth birthday is the occasion of hakuju (白寿),"white age", because the Chinese character for white, 白, looks likethe Chinese character for one hundred, 百, with the top "one"removed.
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