My bird, by power of charm ascending, in the glance of an eye . . . by this charm shall my bird arise. – A turu manu kite-flying chant.
The practice of flying kites goes back many moons ago and there is much uncertainty as to how and where it began. It is believed that the first kites were known to the people of the South Sea Islands. It is said that they used kites to fish, attaching bait to the tail of the kite and a web to catch the fish. Up until today some natives of those islands in the Pacific Ocean use kites as a fishing aid.
In the Polynesian Islands kites were associated with gods. A kite represented the god Tane as well as the god Rongo who was the patron saint of the arts, kites and kite-flying. In New Zealand kites were made in the shape of birds and it was believed that birds could carry messages between humans and gods. In fact, sometimes kites represented the gods themselves. Maori god Rehua is depicted as a bird and was thought to be the ancestor of all kites. Kite-flying was seen as a sacred ritual and was often accompanied by a type of chant called the turu.
China is another widely accepted place for the origin of kites. Huan Theng, a Chinese general in 202 BCE, got the idea for a particular military strategy watching the way his hat flew from his head.
Placing thin pieces of bamboo that hummed and shrieked in the wind, he flew a large number of them over the enemy encampment one night, causing them to believe that they were plagued by evil spirits out to destroy them. The army actually ran away. Both the Chinese and the Japanese used kites for raising soldiers into the air as spies of snipers. (http://www.skratch-pad.com/kites)
As time went on, kites were incorporated into Asian custom. In Korea it was the tradition to write the names and birth dates of male children on the kites and then fly them. In Thailand each monarch had his or her own kite, which was flown continuously during the months by imperial monks and priests. They were also flown during the monsoon season by the people of Thailand to send their prayers to the gods.
Recently, a local television news item reported on the experience of a St Joseph community with a large kite. But the practice of flying large kites during what the Japanese call kite festivals was very commonplace.
Each festival has its own history, scale, culture and feature. According to www.asahi.net.or.jp/, at the Sagami Festival, which was held since 1830, a giant kite 14.4 metres wide, 14.4 metres high, weighing 880 kilogrammes and costing 1.8 million yen was flown by 90 men. An important part of the festival is kite-fighting between and among villages.
There was also the Wanwan Kite Festival, believed to have begun in 1692, which sees kites ten metres or more in diameter, with the largest ever kite metres.
This year my uncle who lives in Oldham, England joined me on my kite-flying trip in Fairview, where every year the field of canes in the heart of the village is burnt unless it is cut before the Good Friday weekend. I sat, ironically on the tractor wheels of a cane harvester and “upped” my kite which, like a gracious lady, mounted her way with double-tail into the rural sky overlooking my birthplace.
We took the time to recall how as boys, of different eras, of course, we flew kites and spent hours in the sun, in the bushes, in the gully, sometimes warring with boys from the village next door as they came with razor-laced cords to cut our kites out of the sky.
This year it was to my delight when my firstborn daughter called me to bring my kite and join her at her church fun day at Deighton Griffith School.
Flying my kite in the Christ Church wind was different, in that the same star-diamond kite which took so easily to the sky in St George assumed a different personality in the south. In fact, it was not until I lightened the double tail that she resumed her lady-like gentleness as she romanced with the south wind with equal pleasure.
The historical twine connected to kite-flying seems to wind its way back into medieval time. Dennis Jones, a Jamaican-born international economist who lived most in Britain, the United States and West Africa, refers to kite-flying as a Chinese tradition going back 3 000 years ago, and acknowledges that the reason for flying kites around this time is still obscure. Can anyone tell us who brought kite-flying to the Caribbean?
So kite-flying is so much a part of our lives that even our language, both formal and informal, has incorporated its symbolism. When last were you accused of flying a kite for someone? According to the Concise Oxford Dictionary, this is the act of trying something out to test public opinion. In the informal use, it refers to the use of a fraudulent cheque, bill or receipt. When last were you told “to go and fly a kite”?
Well, before you tell me, “Get Lost!” since I am not sure whose kite you are flying, I’m gone! Hope you had a happy Easter! Kite or no kite!
