the Culture Day

November 3rd is called "the Culture Day"; one of the national holidays.

Before World War the Second, this was the holiday to celebrate the Meiji Emperor's birthday.

After World War the Second, the Constitution of Japan was proclaimed on the 3rd of November, 1946.
6 months later, on the 3rd of May, the Constitution of Japan was enforced and it is the national holiday as well.

This season is the mid of Autumn and trees and leaves are changing their colors, not so many but some trees feel the atmosphere of Autumn coming.

The List of National Holidays in Japan

This page lists the national holidays in Japan and most of holidays are supposed to be  linked to the page describing the history and customs of the national holiday respectively.

(Sorry, some holidays are not linked yet; they are under construction)

I set this page up to banner menu above, so that you can check them out whenever you want.

January 1st:  "Oshogatsu"  the New Year Day

The second Monday of January: "Seijin no HI"  the Coming-of-Age Day

February 3rd:  "Kenkoku Kinen no Hie" the day of national foundation

March 20th:  "Shunbun no Hi" the Spring Equinox 

April 29th:  "Showa no Hi" the day of "Showa"

May 3rd:  "Kenpou Kinenbi" the Memorial Day of the Constitution 

May 4th:  "Midori no Hi" the day of Green

May 5th:  "Kodomo no Hi" the day of Children 

July 20th:  "Umi no Hi" the day of Sea

The third Monday of September:  "Keiro no Hi" 

September 20th: "Shuubun no Hi"   the Autumn Equinox

The second Monday of October: "Taiiku no Hi"  the day of Sports

November 3rd: "Bunka no Hi"  the Culture Day

November 24th: "Kinrou Kansha no Hi"  the Labour Thanksgiving Day

December 23rd:  "Tennou Tanjobi"  the Empelor's Birthday

The Golden Week in Japan

This calender is from timeanddate.com.

From the end of April to the first week of May is called " the Golden Week" in Japan.

We have consecutive national holidays and many people may combine paied vacations to national holidays in that week, then comes out the long vacation about a week.

This year, April 29th, Wednesday, is "Showa day"and May 3rd through May 6th, Sunday through Wednesday, are also national holidays, so if a person takes paid vacations from Thirsday to Friday twice, he or she gets 12 days vacation.

I have already touched upon April 29th "Showa day" and May 4th "Midori no Hi; Greenery day" in my previous post, please check it out.  So let me explain the rest of national holidays, from May 3rd to May 6th.

May 3rd and May 5th are also national holidays but May 6th is not always a national holiday, the details are as follows:

-May 3rd : Constitution day; to remind and celebrate the enactment of the current constitution of Japan, oriented to a fair and peaceful society.

-May 4th : Greenery day; "Midori no Hi" is described in my previous post, Showa Day, please check it out. 

-May 5th : Children's day; to celebrate or wish children's growth and to thank for their mothers.  This day used to be a boy's festival, just like a girl's festival on March 3rd.

-May 6th : a substituted holiday for May 3rd; this year May 3rd is Sunday.  Whenver a national holiday meets Sunday, the following weekday will be substituted as a national holiday.

This substituted holiday is one of the activities to achieve so called "work-life balance" for hard working Japanese people, who hesitate to take paid vacations.

The reasons are a little complicated and someday I will discuss this topic on my post if I find a good article to be introduced about the characteristics of Japanese people on working style.

Showa Day

April 29 th is a national holiday, called "Showa Day".

"Showa" is the name of the era during the reign of Emperor Hirohito, and it implicates "wishing the peace of both the people and the world".

Here, let me explain the background of this day.

Japan keeps the tradition enacting the name of an era for the Emperor or the Shogun since the early beginning of the foundation of Japan.

Before Showa Day has been enacted, April 29th had been the Emperor's Birthday since 1926 and a national holiday.  Showa was terminated in 1989 with his demise and the name of an era changed to "Heisei", the current era, meaning "peace everywhere", and the name of the day was also changed into "Midori no Hi", meaning the day of green called "Greenery day", referring to the season in which trees and flowers are blooming vividly.

Since 2007, "Midori no Hi" has moved to May 4th, and April 29th remained as a national holiday so as for the people to remember the hard times after World War 2 and the process of overcoming the hardship.

Equinox

March 20th is an equinox and the national holiday.  September 23rd is also another equinox and holiday as well.

Japanese people used to celebrate the spring equinox to pray for good harvest in this coming  year.

In Japan, there have been two traditions with both the spring and the autumn equinoxes.
The first one: to worship the holy spirits of the royal family of successive Japanese Emperors.
The second : to worship the ancestors at the graveyard; tradition from Buddhism.

In Buddhism, equinoxes are called " O-Hegun" phonetically in Japanese, meaning reaching out to the Buddhist deliverance or the sense of salvation.


Nowadays, many Japanese families enjoy "Ohagi": sticky rice cake covered with mashed red beans or yellow flour powder, seen in the left side:

Ohagi Phote in http://shop.eirakuya.co.jp/ja/item/114/

Flowers in my house; that seems to celebrate the spring equinox

National Foundation Day or the Day of National Foundation

February 11th is celebrated as the Day of National Foundation.
The ancient mythology told that the Emperor Jinmu, the first emperor of Japan, was ascended to throne on February 11th.
Constitution of the Empire of Japan (Meiji Constitution) was promulgated on this day in 1889.

Before the end of World War 2, February 11th was called "Empire Day", when the people were awe inspired and celebrated the Empire.

After World War2, in 1948, the Empire Day was dismissed, but some congressmen tried to legislate to set "National Finundation Day" back.
While 18 years to end up the arguments, in 1966, "the Day of National Foundation " has been passed through Congress.
Thesedays, not so many people mind calling National Foundation day, but it used to have a large difference from the Day of National Foundation.

If we say "National Foundation Day", it implies the founder, and this is related to the myth of the ancient throne.


Please click here to see the pictures googled in the words "Foundation Day".

Coming-of-Age Day

Today, January 13 is a national holiday, called "Coming-of Age Day".
I have found the Web site about this day in English as follows:

"The second Monday of January is "Seijin no hi" (Coming-of-age Day) in Japan.
 People celebrate this day to welcome the young men and women, who have turned or will turn the age of 20 during the current year, as new members of society!! Ceremonies are held in every city, town and village. The people who have reached the age of twenty get the right to vote and also allowed to smoke and drink."
(http://www.eikaiwagakushu.com/nihonbunka/seijinnohi.html)

It used to be on January 15th, but since 2000, it has been set in the second Monday of January due to "Happy Monday Regulation", which legislate the some specific Monday as a national holiday to encourage to have vacations for hard-working Japanese people.

The reason why it used to be on January 15th is because it is "the small new year" on Lunatic Calender and used to have a ceremony of "Coming -of-Age Day" in Samurai era.
At that time, the age varied from 5-6 years old to 20 years old.  (According to Wikipedia)

A new year celebration in Japan

January 1st is a special day for Japanese people.
-families get together
-eat a special meal boxes, so called "Ossechy"
-eat vegetable soup dipped with a rice cake, so called "Ozounny"
-give money to kids, so called "Otoshi-Damma"
-drink flavored rice wine, so called "Otosso"

Please take a look at my photos below; those are things we have had in this new year events.

home-made "Ossechy" with Champaign and Red Wine

Each food has special implication regarding to health, wealth and future.

I will describe those implications someday as a new post.

"Ozounny"

Hard to see a rice cake but it is dipped under carrot.

"Otosso"

This is a traditional sake pitcher and sake cups (looks like small dishes).

We pour flavoured sake into sake cup (golden ones) and drink it.

"Otoshi-Damma"

Usually, we put some bills in it and give it to kids.  (sometimes relatives or other person as well)

The illustrates on the envelop represent the typical goods of new year in Japan.

Sports day and Olympics in Japan

On the 10th of October in 1964, the opening ceremony of the first Olympic games in Japan was held in Tokyo and set as a national holiday in 1966 named as "Sports day" for a memorial. It was a symbol of Japan's reconstruction from World War II and good opportunity to develop Japanese economy, then Japan moved to the high economic growth era.

After the first summer Olympic games in Japan, the winter games hosted twice in 1972 at Sapporo and 1998 at Nagano. Particularly, Nagano Olympic left a lot of debt and local goverment was forced to repayment prior to civil services.

6 years later, Tokyo will host another summer Olympic games and Japanese government motivates people to make it a success in several aspects; the economic revitalization, the opportunities to share the Japanese hospitality and courtesy, so-called "O-Mo-Te-Na-Shi",
activation of tourism in Japan the trigger new inventions and services.

The reason why today is a national holiday is because of "Happy Monday System" which has been legislated to encourage to take five days workweek system and Sports day has been set on the second Monday in October since 2000.