Correction

September 18, 2000

When this photograph ran in the Monitor on Aug. 21 (page 18), we identified the two young brothers as being outside the Meiji Shrine in Tokyo on Culture Day, Nov. 3.

We were wrong.

"From their dress and from the writing on the bag of candy that the smaller boy is carrying," Loris Mann of Marietta, Ga., wrote politely, "it is evident that the day in question is 'Shichi-Go-San,' a celebration held throughout Japan each year on Nov. 15, when children ages 7, 5, and 3 dress in their best clothes and visit the local shrine for a blessing."

We contacted an independent translator, who verified this reader's conclusion.

"My husband and I," Ms. Mann added, "always enjoyed seeing the small children dressed in their finery on this day when we lived in Japan."

We bow, corrected.

(c) Copyright 2000. The Christian Science Publishing Society