Well, here it is March. When I was a kid, in March you flew kites. I remember all the 5 and 10 cent stores (subject of another blog) had kites for sale and we usually got a new kite — no one ever saved a kite from the previous year — saved the string sometimes, but not the kite. I remember being a reasonably good ‘kite flyer’ but I always had better luck with a box kite rather than the ‘regular’ kinds. I didn’t realize until I was much older that there were more than two kinds of kites — regular and box. You could buy a regular kite for about a dime — box kites were expensive, going for around a quarter. I tried making kites, but was never very successful, and usually wound up with the “store bought” variety.
I think March is acknowledged as Kite Flying Month, but for some reason Kite Flying “Day” is allocated to February — why on earth that should be is beyond me — its so screwy it must be some kind of congressional mandate or something.
Arguably, the most famous kite flyer was Ben Franklin — his kite experiment has grown into an American legend. Ben hypothesized that lightening was an electrical phenomenon and that its effect could be transferred to another object (a key) that could be recognized as electricity. Of course his hypothesis proved correct and led to the development of lightening rods among other things. If you’ve been to the Air and Space museum, you probably learned that the Wright Brothers did a lot of experimenting with kites and that knowledge contributed to the development of the airplane.
The exact date and origin of the kite isn’t known but evidence points to kites being flown in China more than two thousand years ago. One Chinese legend suggests that when a Chinese farmer tied a string to his hat to keep it from blowing away in a strong wind, the first kite was born.
Kites have played key roles in technology development, wars, weather and even transportation. In 1822 George Pocock (a schoolmaster) used a pair of kites to pull a carriage at speeds of up to 20 miles and hour — some of his kite trips were recorded at over 100 miles. At the time, road taxes and tolls were based on the number of horses pulling the carriage, so clever George was exempted from any tolls…. In 1862 there was a stage coach service between London and Bristol using kites instead of horses.
During World War I kites were used for enemy observation and signaling…. in World War II, the U.S. Navy pilots lost at sea used box kites so they could be found easier.
We’ve spent a bit of time in Asia and kite flying there is much more popular than in the United States, especially among the kids. Asia has a long history with kites and they seem to be much more a part of their culture than in other parts of the world. Kite flying was banned in China during the Cultural Revolution; there are 78 rules pertaining to kite flying in Thailand; kite flying in Japan was banned in 1760 because too many people preferred to fly kites rather than work. The Chinese believe that looking at kites high in the sky maintains good eyesight and when you tilt your head back to look at a kite in the sky your mouth opens slightly, which gets rid of excess body heat, giving you a healthy yin-yang balance. The Chinese name for a kite is Fen Zheng, which means wind harp. In Asia, kites are given to someone to bring them happiness, good luck, prosperity and cure illness. In fairly recent times, kites were banned in East Germany because of the possibility of one being used to lift over the Berlin Wall.
Although kites don’t seem as popular with the kids of today, they’re still ingrained in our society — you hear the term in books (The Kite Runner,) songs (Kite Dance, Kites in the Wind, Kites Without Stings) and we’ve all heard phrases like. “higher than a kite” and “go fly a kite.” The “go fly a kite” phrase actually came up in our conversation a few months ago on the golf course. During the discussion, everyone seemed to agree that it meant that someone was really annoying and just go away — like, “go jump in a lake,” or “go climb a tree.” In other words, find an activity like flying a kite to keep you busy for awhile so I can get some work done. Naturally I couldn’t just agree with everyone, so I suggested that the phrase came from the idea that while flying a kite, Ben Franklin discovered electricity, so “go fly a kite” was suggesting that someone get a better idea or make a new discovery. I don’t care that I was voted down — I like my view better.
Anyhow, don’t let March pass you by without some serious thinking about kites — if you don’t want to go out, imagination is the highest kite you can fly.
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