Has your child come home and mentioned they were the Daruma today in Japanese or that they want to be the Daruma soon? Let me explain a few things…

Firstly, what is a DARUMA?

A Daruma is a Japanese symbol of good fortune. They are traditionally made of papier-mache, round in shape with a hollow inside and weighted bottom. Red is the traditional colour but now a days you can find other coloured daruma around.

When you buy a daruma they will have two eyes which haven’t had the pupil drawn in. You make a wish and colour one eye in and then once your wish comes true you colour the other eye in.

You can see pictures of Daruma at the top of this blog page. Also there are a number of Daruma in Vinall sensei’s classroom (including a Mickey Mouse themed one from Tokyo Disneyland!)

In Vinall sensei’s classroom students have the opportunity to be the Daruma of the week. It is a highly sought after role with the pop stick draw for the next week’s daruma always a very exciting end to our 2nd lesson each week. The role of the daruma in lesson time is to be a helper for sensei. The daruma gets to wear a special jacket and sit on a special cushion reserved especially for the daruma! Students also get to bring home a certificate on the day and make their own wish on the daruma depicted on it.

Here are some students wearing their jackets…

 

 

…and with the               certificate!