Children's Day

May 5 is Children's Day, a Japanese national holiday celebrated especially by boys and their families, in contrast to March 3, which is the corresponding holiday for girls.  Many homes are decorated with a samurai's helmet and paper or cloth carp are flown from tall poles set up outside.  The iris shows the straight lines and colors of the flowers are considered masculine.  (Information gleaned from Japanese Flower Arrangement: A New Illustrated Guide to Mastery, pub. 1968)

Koinobori : The black carp (Magoi) at the top represents the father, the red carp (Higoi) represents the mother, and the last carp represents the child (traditionally son), with an additional carp added for each subsequent child with color and position denoting their relative age.  (Wikipedia)

Showing a slew of children's patterns from the 1960s.

1963 

1968

 1969

1969

1969

This is my favorite of the bunch, reminds me of this Seinfeld episode.