Annual Japanese Calendar Holidays, Celebrations, Festivals & Remembrances

SUMMARY -- Nihon no matsuri to horidee guido

Some major Japanese festivals are not national holidays; and some national holidays are not celebrated with overt festivities. A few of the holidays and many of the festivals can float on the calendar for any given year, e.g. when a holiday falls on a Sunday, Monday becomes a day off. Conversely, a festival which falls on a Monday, Tuesday, or Wednesday is often celebrated in temples or shrines the previous weekend.

Japanese holidays are all national, but festivals are often regional. These articles primarily concern those recognized and celebrated in the Tokyo and surrounding Kanto (Yokohama, Chiba, Saitama,...) region. Refer to the attached HTMLed articles for more information. Most of these articles were originally written for (the now discontinued) Tokyo Today Magazine [TT] in the early 1990's, where I was theCultural Editor for about two years. I've touched them up, but otherwise they are provided as is, for whomever would like to peruse them, etc. I was astounded at the gaps on the web concerning some types of information, so I decided to post these. I lived in Tokyo for over 5 years, speak the language, and have traveled to more cities and towns across Japan than many Japanese. (BTW, I returned to the US in early 1996, now living near Portland, Oregon, and am working for a large computer company there.)

(This page originally came from: http://www.paulzilla.org/japanese/...) And... this is ©1997 Paul Abramson. Most rights reserved, meaning that you may copy and share this information with numerous friends, co-workers, or students, etc. Give proper credit too, please, i.e. include my name and also copy this copyright info. However, written permission is required prior to any commercial and/or for-profit reproduction of any kind. If in doubt, please ask me - thank you!   Paul Abramson   paul@zzz.com


Image of Japanese Calendar Kanji   New Year's Day (ganjitsu) January 1st --National Holiday--

Image of Japanese Calendar Kanji   Coming of Age Day (seijin no hi) January 15th --National Holiday--

Image of Japanese Calendar Kanji   Bean Throwing Festival (setsubun) February 3rd

Image of Japanese Calendar Kanji   Foundation Day (kenkoku kinen no hi) February 11th --National Holiday--

Image of Japanese Calendar Kanji   Dolls Festival (hina matsuri) March 3rd

Image of Japanese Calendar Kanji   Vernal Equinox (shuubun no hi) March 20th or 21st --National Holiday--

Image of Japanese Calendar Kanji   Flower Festival (hana matsuri) April 8th

Image of Japanese Calendar Kanji   Green Day (midori no hi) April 29th --National Holiday--

Image of Japanese Calendar Kanji   Constitution Memorial Day (kenpou kinembi) May 3rd --National Holiday--

Image of Japanese Calendar Kanji   Children's Day (kodomo no hi) May 5th --National Holiday--

Image of Japanese Calendar Kanji   Star Festival (tanabata) July 7th

     The Day of the Sea (umi no ni) July 20th

Image of Japanese Calendar Kanji   Festival of Souls (bon [or] obon) August 13-15th

Image of Japanese Calendar Kanji   Respect for the Aged Day (keirou no hi) September 15th --National Holiday--

Image of Japanese Calendar Kanji   Autumnal Equinox (shuubun no hi) September 23rd or 24th --National Holiday--

Image of Japanese Calendar Kanji   Health-Sports Day (taiiku no hi) October 10th --National Holiday--

Image of Japanese Calendar Kanji   Culture Day (bunka no hi) November 3rd --National Holiday--

Image of Japanese Calendar Kanji   Seven-Five-Three (shichi go san) November 15th

Image of Japanese Calendar Kanji   Labor Thanksgiving Day (kinrou kansha no hi) November 23rd --National Holiday--

Image of Japanese Calendar Kanji   Emperor's Birthday (tennou tanjoubi) December 23rd --National Holiday--

Image of Japanese Calendar Kanji   Christmas Day (kurisumasu) December 25th


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