History UsefulNotes / JapaneseHolidays

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 media consumers. Further, holidays known to Western culture may have an entirely different spin on them.

Here is a short chronological listing of Japanese holidays, with an eye to those portrayed in various anime. Note that not all are actual holidays in the sense of "days off". Conversely, unlike in the U.S. with its school-on-Columbus-Day shenanigans, if it's a national holiday in Japan (even if it's just the equinox) ''you get that day off''.

* Japanese New Year (''O-Shougatsu'', litt. "The Right Month") (January 1-4) - 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 games of ''uta-karuta'', where poems from the ''Hyakunin Isshu'' are used for a snap-style card game, and ''iroha-karuta'', whose cards illustrate topical sayings that form an acrostic for the Japanese syllabary.

* Japanese New Year (''O-Shougatsu'', litt. "The ") (January 1-4) - 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 games of ''uta-karuta'', where poems from the ''Hyakunin Isshu'' are used for a snap-style card game, and ''iroha-karuta'', whose cards illustrate topical sayings that form an acrostic for the Japanese syllabary.

One aspect of this is that the many of the holidays celebrated may be completely unfamiliar to non-Japanese media viewers. Further, holidays known to Western culture may have an entirely different spin on them.

* Japanese New Year (Oshogatsu) (January 1-4) - 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 games of ''uta-karuta'', where poems from the ''Hyakunin Isshu'' are used for a snap-style card game, and ''iroha-karuta'', whose cards illustrate topical sayings that form an acrostic for the Japanese syllabary.

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.

* Golden Week (April 29-May -5) - A series of holidays clustered together which effectively serve as a whole week long vacation for the work-oriented Japan. This shows up prominently in Japanese popular media, but it is often characterized by virtual gridlock in the otherwise excellent [[CoolTrain train system]], prompting the media to breathlessly report on just how over-capacity the shinkansen is. Also the bane of manga fans, since ''Magazine/ShonenJump'' always takes the week off. The holidays in question are:

* UsefulNotes/{{Tanabata}} (July 7) "The Evening of The Seventh" - Not a national holiday. 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 [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tanabata#Story_behind_the_Tanabata here]] on Wiki/TheOtherWiki.) It is marked with festivals and with writing wishes on strips of paper and attaching these to bamboo.

* Valentine's Day (February 14) - Not a national holiday, this day is imported by chocolate companies, as a result of which the Japanese version of the holiday centers heavily around chocolate. Women give [[ThroughHisStomach chocolates to their special men]], as well as "obligation chocolate" to their male coworkers. The fact that only men get presents is (according to Wiki/TheOtherWiki) due to a typo made by an ad exec during the original advertising campaign. See White Day below.

* Doll Festival/Girls' Day (March 3) - Not a national holiday. A traditional day for young girls. Platforms covered in red carpet are set up with a display of dolls representing the Emperor, Empress and their court in Heian period dress along with palace accesories; It's complemented by Children's Day/Boys' Day (See Golden Week below).

* [[UsefulNotes/AllHallowsEve Halloween (October 31)]] - Not a national holiday and not highly celebrated; the Buddhist festival Bon may be the closest equivalent of what Halloween once was, since the spirits of the dead revisit household altars. Awareness of Halloween has increased of late as more and more American media makes it to Japan. [[Ride/DisneyThemeParks Tokyo Disneyland]] in particular has been largely attributed to the rising popularity of the holiday in the country, as they began their own Halloween event in 2000, which quickly became a success. [[Ride/UniversalStudios Universal Studios Japan]] would later further expand the holiday's presence via their own event. Japanese stores took notice of the popularity of the parks' events and began selling a vast array of Halloween merchandise, making things snowball from there. Some anime use Halloween an an excuse to put a cast of [[{{Moe}} cute girls]] in [[HalloweenCosplay cute costumes]]. Generally there are a lot of ([[{{UsefulNotes/Kawaisa}} cute]], not scary) Halloween decorations about for the month of October, but unlike elsewhere in the world, trick-or-treating is not commonly done during the holiday -- it is rather instead seen as a time for people to dress up and go to parties.

There are also several special "memorial" or "observance" days that play off alternate Japanese pronunciations of the numerical date's numbers, often promoted by various businesses or clubs in Japan. February 9 (or alternatively any 29th of the month) is "Meat Day" because "2 9" can be read as "''niku''" ("meat"), so supermarkets and restaurants try to push meat-related sales. August 7 is "celebrated" as "Banana Day" because 8 for August can be pronounced "ba" and 7 as "nana" because the Japan Banana Importers Association deemed it so. Similarly, Japanese confectionary giant Glico declared November 11 as "Pocky & Pretz Day" because 11/11 looks like their Pocky and Pretz snacks.

* Emperor's Birthday (December 23) - A celebration of the reigning Emperor's birthday. The date obviously changes when a new Emperor takes the throne, although the Japanese Diet still has to convene to "officially" designate a new date for the holiday.[[labelnote:Note]]The current heir apparent's birthday is February 23.[[/labelnote]]