Since I have been not really feeling so great this week and got totally nothing done, I am going to share with you the photos from the River City Guild class on Stack and Whack last night.I did the program on Machine Needles and Mary followed me with a program on hand sewing needles. She told the story of the ladies in Japan who save all their damaged, broken and dull needles through the year and attend a temple festival called Hari-Kuyo on every February 8. The Festival of Broken Needles. The Shinto and Buddhist priests collect the needles in a cake of tofu and float them out into the ocean.
For centuries women would sit and sew garments and items for the home to care for their families. As they sew their concerns would be for their children and husbands, mothers and fathers. And when they prick their fingers, they leave a part of themselves on their needles. This festival is to honor the women and their tools, however small.
That was so cool!
To see the Stack and Whack class they had click: HERE
I did not have a dog in the hunt, as they say.
glen
what?! All those broken sharp needles for fish to find? Seems wrong somehow... maybe they should smelt them down to a statue or something more beautiful.
ReplyDeleteLove the idea of honoring the broken needles.
ReplyDeleteI like the idea of honoring the women but putting them in tofu in the ocean? Kinda wierd
ReplyDelete