Darumas

Tonight, I went to a Japanese restaurant with AIESEC and had a bit of a class with Kana about Japanese culture.

Kana’s parents are Japanese, she was born in Australia, speaks Japanese and is going to live in Japan for the next 5 months.

The most curious thing I learnt today is about the Darumas (picture beside). Daruma is a wooden made doll, without arms or legs and with white / unpainted eyes. In New Year’s Eve (the most important family occasion), people paint one of the eyes and make a wish. When the wish comes true, they paint the other eye and, in the next New Year’s Eve, burn the “complete” Daruma, which brought some king of happiness to the house.

More info: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Daruma