First birthday fete

At the 11th Annual Korean Children’s Festival, held in Cunningham Park on Sunday, May 13, Korean families celebrated the first birthdays of their babies by participating in the traditional - “Tol Janchi.” During the ceremony, babies are dressed in vibrant, dressy costumes and placed at a table, covered in a number of items - rice, money, a book, apples, rice cakes, golf balls, and stethoscopes. Whatever item the child picks up first is supposed to predict the baby’s future or profession. Scholars pick books, and an apple means the child will have many descendants, or so tradition says. At the Fresh Meadows festival, Woodside resident Hanna Kim (second left) dumped the entire bowl of rice onto the table, meaning that she will be extremely wealthy, according to her mother Julie Choi (left).