You are actually looking at many strands of origami cranes strung together in groups of 1000. The custom is called Senbazuru which means thousand cranes. Japanese people make a thousand cranes out of folded paper (origami) and string them together to pray for someone in danger or for the recovery of someone who is ill. People will take them as gifts when they visit a sick person or they will be left as offerings at temples or shrines. Sometimes people use the cranes to wish for things like passing the placement test to get into a good high school, or being able to play in a national baseball tournament. You may have heard of this custom if you have read "Sadako and the Thousand Paper Cranes". There is now a world wide effort to make Senbazuru to promote world peace. Click here for more information on the Sadako statue in Hiroshima. For more on how this custom originated, click here.

Here are some good websites for learning how to make a crane: how to make a crane origami kids sadako.com � The Hartys and Fathys did good research once again and sent in a correct answer. Our creative answers were sent in by all of our third grade classes as well as e-mail from students in many other grades. Here are some of my favorites: Japanese mop Cousin "It" from the Japanese Addams Family a door knocker Japanese pompom fireworks tail of a dragon wig lei yarn rags scarecrow Hawaiian skirt � � � �