Traditional Lucky Charm Market on a Day-of-Bird in November

These photos are showing a traditional lucky charm market called "Trinoichi (Market of Bird-Days)". This Market is a traditional seasonal event held a couple of times in November every year. The reason it is called "Trinoichi Market" is the fact the Market is actually held on a "Day of Bird". In old times, people used twelve animal symbols of the Chinese zodiac to count time such as year, month, day and hour. 

With such system, a month can have the same animal days twice or three times, so that "Trinoichi Market" can also be twice or three times depending on the year. In such cases, each market is called separately, such as "Ichi-no-Tori (The First Bird)", "Ni-no-Tori (The Second Bird)", and "San-no-Tori (The Third Bird)". This year in 2015, we have "Trinoichi Market" three times and the second market "Ni-no-Tori (The Second Bird)" was just finished on the 17th and the photos were taken on that day.

What kind of lucky charms are sold at a "Trinoichi Market"? On the market days, many of stalls are set up on the grounds of some shrines and sell traditional "lucky rakes" as in the two upper photos. The meaning of this lucky charm is "Collecting Luck for The Next Year", and usually the rakes are made of bamboo and heavily decorated as in the lower left photos. There is a variety of sizes for "lucky rakes" and the price depends on the size. A big one can be about 5-6 feet (150-160cm) and the smallest size can be about 5 inches (10-15cm). The bigger rakes seem to have too much decoration and don't look like rakes anymore, but when you see the small one shown on the photos on the lower right hand side, you can see it is a really rake. 

This year, there's going to be the "San-no-Tori (The Third Bird)" market on the 29th of November which is Sunday. If you'd like to collect luck for the next year,  you can still have a chance to go to a "Trinoichi Market" and get a "lucky rake"!

The photos are taken at Otori Shrine in Hachioji City, Tokyo.