Go fly a kite!
When someone says, “Go fly a kite!” they mean “Go away, get lost!” And
that’s just what happens to a kite when the string isn’t strong enough.
A hard wind blows and snaps the string. Your kite is lost. That’s a sad
moment. But when there’s a good breeze—and you have a strong
string—nothing is more fun than flying a kite.
Children around the world fly kites just for fun. But kites have other
uses, too. They are used to send and receive radio signals. And water
skiers use kites to pull themselves from the surface of the water into
the air.
An old Korean story tells how, about a thousand years ago, a general won
a battle with a kite. On a dark night, he tied a lantern to a kite. Then
he flew the kite, with a lighted lantern, above the enemy camp. When the
enemy soldiers saw the strange yellow light in the sky, they threw down
their weapons. They thought the end of the world had come! The clever
general attacked and defeated the enemy.
Nobody knows if this story is true. But we do know that when Korean
children ask for toys, their mothers tie a list to the tail of a kite.
The children fly the kites to tell the gods what they want. It’s a
custom—like sending a letter to Santa Claus.
United States
People fly colorful kites along the coast of Oregon.
