FREE ALL DAY!

Ring in the New Year with fun arts ‘n crafts, whimsical tales, and exciting performances.

11:00 – Doors open

11:00 – 4:00 – Craft activities for the entire family
 

• Create your own daruma doll and make a wish for 2009!
   
• Decorate a postcard to send as a New Year’s greeting to a friend or family member
   
• Make an origami crane ornament and embellish it with decorations to make it your own
  
  12:00 – We Tell Stories presents“New Years Stories”
  
  1:00 –Kodama Taiko: Mochitsuki (rice cake pounding) Ceremony
  
  2:00 – Osechi-ryori *:Try traditional Japanese New Year foods
  
  3:00 – Kodama Taiko: Mochitsuki (rice cake pounding) Ceremony
  
  4:00 – Doors close
  
  About our Friends:
  
  KODAMA is a group of percussionists from the greater Los Angeles area who are dedicated to performing both traditional and contemporary pieces through the sounds of taiko. The group is primarily composed of working professionals who enjoy spending their ³off² time learning and creating entertaining performance pieces.
  
  Kodama is well known for their unique Mochitsuki (rice cake pounding) performance which combines the age-old tradition of hand-pounding mochi (sweet rice) with the sounds of taiko. This energetic custom is typically performed during the Japanese New Year¹s (Oshogatsu), but has lately been expanded to include any celebratory occasion. Makoto Fujii of the Japan based group Medetaya instructed Kodama in combining the art of taiko and Mochitsuki.
  
  For more information, visit: www.kodamataiko.com/
  
  WE TELL STORIES is a multi-ethnic group of artists that seeks to educate, nurture, and strengthen communities by reconnecting young audiences with the ancient powers of storytelling and theatre.
  
  For more information, visit: www.wetellstories.org/
  
  * Japanese New Year's food is called osechi-ryori, and colorful osechi-ryori dishes are packed in layers of lacquer boxes, called jubako. Each dish and ingredient in osechi has meaning, such as good health, fertility, good harvest, happiness, long life, and so on. The kinds of osechi dishes eaten at Japanese homes vary from region to region.
   

  Other Family Events at the National Museum
  
  January 17: WOK and ROLL Family Cooking Adventures
  
  February 14 – Target Family Free Saturday: Be Animated!
  
  March 14 – Target Family Free Saturday: Say Cheese!
  
  March 28: SPRING ROLLS into JANM (a family cooking workshop)
  
  April 11 – Target Family Free Saturday: What's Cooking?