Children's Day in Japan

On may five, each year, japan celebrates a national holiday called children's day. It's a day for families to gather to honor the children in their lives and to wish them a lifetime of health and happiness. Families treat themselves with kashawa mochi, rice cakes filled with sweet bean paste. Some families bathe in a tub sprinkled with iris leaves and roots because it is believed that the iris promotes good health. Not only that, bathing in iris leaves is said to ward off evil spirits. In march 19 97, dead cats, some strangled and others mutilated, were found on the sidewalks. The horrified and distressed locals were at a loss to explain