Japanese Holidays Shine During Golden Week! Which Would You Celebrate?

Japan is a nation which likes its festivals and holidays. The small, and not so small, celebrations occur throughout the year, but aren’t always given much notice. By notice, I mean national holiday in which companies shut down and give their employees a paid day off. If it’s one thing the Japanese are renown for, it’s going to their jobs and working like madcakes, making us 9-5ers look like slackers in comparison.

When the Japanese get a national holiday one can only imagine how thrilled they are to have a day off to relax. But the Japanese don’t just do single paid holidays like we do, that’s for slackers. They have lump sum holidays spanning multiple days, such as New Year’s in January and Obon in August. These two holidays are chump change compared to Golden Week, however.

Golden Week is a group of Japanese holidays which starts on April 29 (Showa Day) and ends on May 5 (Children’s Day, formerly Boy’s Day). The Japanese, for the most part, have this entire week off, depending on how Golden Week falls on the calendar. This year, unfortunately, Golden Week is so set up that the 29th is on a Tuesday, May 3-4 are on a weekend, and May 5-6 are on a Monday and Tuesday. Essentially hard-working natives only have four consecutive days off as opposed to the possible six.

To break down the holidays:

April 29

Showa Day (Showa hi)
A holiday which celebrates the birth of Emperor Showa, the emperor who ruled during War World II.

May 3

Constitution Memorial Day (Kenpo kinenbi)
The day the Japanese celebrate the day their constitution came into effect in 1947.

May 4

Greenery Day (Midori no hi)
Greenery Day is a day to reflect on the beauty of nature. Greenery Day used to fall on April 29, the same day as Showa hi. Midori no hi was so named and placed since Emperor Showa loved nature. May 4 used to have no true holiday but was called “official holiday” (kokumin no kyujitsu). This day is an automatic holiday since by Japanese law, any day which falls between two national holidays is also a holiday. The Japanese then moved Midori no hi to Kokumin no kyujitsu, cause let’s face it, it sucks to be a holiday with no real meaning.

May 5

Children’s Day (Kodomo no hi)
Formerly Boy’s Day, the Japanese changed the holiday to celebrate both boys and girls. Carp flags are flown outside homes to symbolize the children and parents living within.

If I were so inclined, I would be more likely to celebrate Midori no hi than any other day during Golden Week, the reason being, I love nature more than emperors, foreign constitutions and children. It’d actually be fun to celebrate Greenery Day here in the US; it would be another fine reason to have a picnic or party outside during spring. We don’t have too many official days in honor of nature, except for Earth Day. And frankly, Earth Day makes me hella guilty for existing.

Which day out of Golden Week would you use as an excuse to have a party, picnic or political rally? Would you raise a carp flag for your puppy or baby brother/ sister? Would you toast Greenery Day with a Midori sour? Celebrate the birth of Emperor Showa, or have a protest rally on that day? Which holiday would you celebrate?

Hey, I know we don’t celebrate the same holidays as the Japanese, but share which day out of Japan’s longest vacation season you find most appealing in the comments below!