May 25th: Kimono Fair

The Kimono Fair started off as a small part of celebrating Asian Heritage Month when participants would stop by the cultural centre during their bus tour visiting various Asian communities around Calgary. Now, it is a whole day event on its own that invites people to learn and experience the beauty of kimono, the traditional Japanese attire.

This year, more than 20 people signed up for the kimono dressing session. People of all ages participated and were delighted to be dressed in colourful and delicate kimonos as they took their photos in the centre's beautiful garden and our photo booth. Once dressed, guests were invited to tour around the centre to experience various Japanese-themed activities.

Activities included polaroid decorating, kimono life drawing, traditional games and toys and mini market. Some new activities we tried this year were the flower arranging and activity "passport." After collecting stamps at various activity stations, participants were given a free prize. It was a great incentive to get guests to try out all the activities during the event.

Visitors were very keen to know more about the culture and history of kimono. Our kimono experts were glad to share their knowledge and expertise through deep discussion and on-stage dressing demonstration. We hope our visitors learned something new that day.

We want to thank our volunteers for manning the activity stations, prepping food in the kitchen, taking photos and making sure our guests have a wonderful time. We would like to especially thank our kimono dressers for working tirelessly all day with their dressing skills. Without the kimono dressing, there will be no Kimono Fair!

We appreciate everybody who came to the event to show their interest and enthusiasm in Japanese culture. We are very fortunate to be able to share our joy of kimono and all things Japanese to the people in Calgary.

We are looking forward to having this event again next year!

by Mai

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