Wild Kids Magazine for September 2020

Happy September!

Here is this month’s issue of Wild Kids Magazine. As always, it’s ad-free and 100% free to read online or print out. To read it on your Kindle or Kindle app, save the PDF file and email it to your personal Kindle email address.

This month’s issue is 20 pages, with information on drying herbs and flowers, how to make an easy fruit picker from a pop bottle and a broomstick, growing and foraging yarrow and motherwort, September phenology pages, a nature BINGO game and more. Our poetry this month features some famous Japanese haiku poets in honor of the Japanese Otsukimi “moon-viewing” Festival.

Click here to view or download this month’s issue.

Here’s some more information about some of this month’s topics.

Otsukimi Moon Viewing Festival

This month’s poetry corner features Japanese haikus in honor of the Japanese Otsukimi “moon-viewing” Festival, which celebrates the Harvest Moon of the traditional Japanese lunar calendar.

The Nelson Izu-shi Friendship Society says:

Dating back to 1100 years ago, and influenced by Chinese culture, the court people had a moon viewing party with poem readings, playing music, and also enjoying sake. You would find many stories of this event in old collections of tanka poems, diaries and/or famous tales such as The Tale of Genji or The Tales of the Bamboo Cutter-the Princess Kaguya.

By the time of the Edo period, about 350 years ago, commoners also had a moon viewing party to celebrate and thank nature for their harvest. It became very popular among poets to have gatherings or contests for haiku reading under the harvest moon. This custom is still popular today in Japan.

The Japanese American Society is hosting a virtual Otsukimi Moon Viewing Festival for the first time ever this year. There will be Japanese drumming, dancing, cooking demonstrations, hauki readings and more. The event is free. Here’s the information.

Wednesday, September 2 8:00 pm – 9:30 pm

Learn more here.

Make Your Own Fruit Picker

Grit Magazine has some more detailed instructions on making your own fruit picker from a pop bottle and a dowel or tree branch. You can also pick up a sturdy metal cage for around ten dollars or less from sources like Amazon (affiliate link) or your local hardware store.