Please burn us when dark evenings yawn.
and joyful days will surely dawn.

I recently finished folding one thousand origami cranes (known in Japan as Senbazuru) as a gift for a friend who is expecting her first child.  This was my first time completing such a project.  When I began the folding, my cranes looked a bit bedraggled, but after making 150 of them, I began to develop a technique.

There is a Japanese legend that says a wish will be granted to anyone who folds a thousand cranes.  It is common for people to present them as gifts to family and cherished friends.