KODOMO NO HI: Celebrating Growth and Community at Gresham Japanese Garden

Kodomo No Hi, or Children’s Day, is a public holiday in Japan celebrated annually on May 5. It is the final celebration of Golden Week. Kodomo No Hi is a time to show respect for children’s personalities and happiness and to wish them good health and growth.

During my time at the Gresham Japanese Garden in Main City Park, I volunteered with the Japanese Culture Club. I joined the club during the fall 2025 term, and the members have been welcoming and outgoing. In the Japanese Culture Club, you will meet new people, including club President Rin and Vice President Ren. You also learn about Japanese culture and history, and we even discuss anime and manga. We participate in fun events like Onigiri Action, which took place last year on Nov. 6, 2025, in the Student Union. We also spent time with exchange students from Sapporo Gakuin University who came to Mt. Hood Community College in Oregon around February for the winter term. We visited Multnomah Falls and hiked the trail. While the path back down was steep, the experience of learning about people from another country was fantastic.

During the Gresham Japanese Garden event, I interviewed the event coordinator, Zia Shonk. I asked Shonk about the meaning of the event. She said Kodomo No Hi is “all about being outside together, it’s about relaxing, it’s about older kids helping younger kids, it’s about young kids having a space to be curious. Enjoying the outdoors, having a space to do multiple different things. They can kind of pick and choose. I don’t think there’s enough spaces or enough time periods for kids to get recess time. So this is kind of a community recess time where we all make fun for each other.”

“Kodomo No Hi...is about the strength and vitality for young children born out of a time where children often died young.”

“Kodomo No Hi in general is about the strength and vitality for young children born out of a time where children often died young,” Shonk continued. “There’s a special time for kids at the age of 3, 5, and 7. Children’s Day is about strength, and there’s a story about koi climbing a waterfall and becoming a dragon—facing adversity and becoming stronger. We hang up koi; usually, people do blue for boys and red for girls. But gender is becoming more of a spectrum, so it changed from being Boys’ Day to Children’s Day. There used to be a Girls’ Day on March 3, but it’s Dolls’ Day now. That’s how it changed in the modern era. My secondary goal is that people learn about the Gresham Japanese Garden; it’s an open house city garden for families. We are tucked away in Main City Park, so it’s nice to have people discover us through the scavenger hunt. This is the second or third annual one, and we partnered with the MHCC Japanese Culture Club to put this together. It’s a grassroots community.”

Shonk, who is also the vice president of the Portland-Sapporo Sister City Association, was a wonderful subject to interview for this story.

The MHCC Japanese Culture Club is always looking for new members. Anyone is welcome to join us in Room AC1267 near the integrated media hallway. Some of our members are traveling to Japan this summer, which is exciting but bittersweet as they head across the Pacific. We hope you enjoy this story in the Advocate and consider joining the club.