Japan is, as you may have guessed, a foreign country.
Unless you're Japanese.
One aspect of this is that the many of the holidays celebrated may be completely unfamiliar to non-Japanese anime viewers. Further, holidays known to Western culture may have an entirely different spin on them.
Here is a short chronological listing of these, with an eye to those portrayed in various anime. Note that not all are actual holidays in the sense of "days off".
- Japanese New Year (Jan 1) - Eating traditional Japanese New Year's foods (osechi) and mochi (rice cakes) is big. Japanese people tend to send postcards for New Years instead of Christmas. Children receive their otoshidama, New Year's money packets. Poetry and games are also traditions, especially in the game of uta-karuta, where poems from the Hyakunin Isshu are used for a snap-style card game.
- Setsubun (Feb 3) - While not a holiday, this day traditionally marks the beginning of spring. Throwing beans to ceremonially expel negative spirits from the household is a characteristic tradition. Technically, this is spring Setsubun, properly called Risshun; each seasonal division can be called Setsubun.
- Valentine's Day (Feb 14) - In Japan, on Valentine's Day, women give chocolates to their special men, as well as "obligation chocolate" to their male coworkers. See White Day below.
- Girls Day/Doll Festival (Mar 3) - a traditional day for young girls.
- White Day (Mar 14) - On this day, men return the favour shown to them by women on Valentine's Day. Woe betide the anime man who forgets this! Like many "greeting card holidays" in the West, it was largely invented by marketers trying to give people an excuse to buy white chocolate.
- Hanami (varies, late Mar to early May) - a popular activity involving watching cherry blossoms and holding picnic parties under the cherry trees.
- Golden Week (Apr 29, May 3-5) - April 29th is Greenery Day and, previously, the birthday of the Showa Emperor. Constitution Memorial Day is on May 3rd, Children's Day (previously Boy's Day) on the 5th, and the 4th is a holiday because Japanese law makes any day between two holidays a holiday as well. All are days off. However, many Japanese take the entire week off, thus the name. A particularly important holiday in work-oriented Japan, and one featured in several anime. In practice, it's characterized by virtual gridlock in the otherwise excellent train system, prompting the media to breathlessly report on just how over-capacity the shinkansen is.
- Tanabata (Jul 7) "The Evening of The Seventh" - A holiday with romantic connotations. There is a legend in Asia called "The Weaver and the Cowherd" about two lovers (Orihime and Hikoboshi, who are the stars Vega and Altair) who can meet only once a year and only if it doesn't rain on the seventh day of the seventh month. (More information here
on The Other Wiki.) It is marked with festivals and with writing wishes on strips of paper and attaching these to bamboo.
- Bon (Jul or Aug 13-15) - A traditional Buddhist celebration aimed at alleviating the loneliness of deceased ancestors. It's often used as a day for family reunions and, since it's during the summer, it often involves outdoor festivals and the wearing of yukata. Usually concludes with the floating of paper lanterns down rivers, symbolizing the return of the spirits back to the realm of the dead.
- Halloween (Oct 31) - Not really celebrated, though awareness of it has increased of late as more and more American media makes it to Japan. Some anime use Halloween an an excuse to put a cast of cute girls in cute costumes.
- Christmas Eve and Day (Dec 24-25) - In Japan, Christmas is considered a romantic holiday, to be spent with one's love rather than family (that is usually for New Years). This event is often a plotline in any anime featuring romance or romantic relationships. It is also celebrated in a more secular manner.
- Omisoka (Dec 31) - New Years Eve and the preparations in the week leading up to it are almost as important as New Year's Day itself and the period could be considered one "holiday" for the purposes of how it is portrayed. "Forget-the-year" parties are big at companies. A thorough house cleaning is often done. Special noodles are served on Omisoka itself. At midnight, a gong is rung 108 times.
For context, it should also be noted that certain days are
not holidays in Japan. Most notably, Saturdays are normally part of the established work week, though this has been changing in recent years. Sunday is not a universal day off, so shops and restaurants may have a closing day on any day of the week. Also, the school year is different, based on a school year beginning on April 1st and divided into trimesters separated by vacation periods. On average, Japanese students spend 60 more days in school than Americans, and these vacation times are valued highly. Up until 2002, Japanese students were required to go to school for a half day on Saturday in addition to the full days on Monday to Friday, and older anime may reflect this. However, a good thirty to forty of these days were for school festivals and cultural days.
For some excellent examples in anime, see
Festival Episode and
School Festival.
