Japanese Holidays!

Happy Golden Week!

The four holidays that make up Golden Week are

as follows:•Showa Day [Showa hi], April 29•Constitution Memorial Day

[Kenpo Kinenbi], May 3•Greenery Day [Midori no hi] (in

this slideshow, “Between Day”), May 4

•Children’s Day [Kodomo no hi], May 5

Showa DayApril 29

April 29 was the birthday of Emperor Hirohito, Showa period, who died in 1989. Following his death, the holiday was changed to Midori no Hi, in honor of the environment and nature. The Emperor was passionate about environmental issues and a nature lover. 

For more information, go to: http://www.workmall.com/wfb2001/japan/japan_history_two_party_system.html

Constitution Memorial DayMay 3

On May 3, 1947, the new post-war constitution became law.

For more information, go to: http://www.thehistorychannel.co.uk/site/this_day_in_history/this_day_May_3.php

Kokumin no KyujitsuMay 4

• “Between Day” • This recently created national holiday was

added in order to make the Golden Week a continuous holiday period

• If my sources are correct, it’s a Japanese law that a holiday must between two other holidays, if they are consecutive (for example: if there was a holiday on August 24 and August 26, there must be one on August 25 as well).

Children’s Day/ Boy’s DayMay 5• This holiday was originally called Tango no

Sekku or Boys Day or Festival. Families with boys would celebrate by flying koi nobori or carp streamers and gogatsu ningyo or May dolls.

• Now all children celebrate this holiday with their parents and enjoy special foods such as rice dumplings wrapped in bamboo leaves and mochi wrapped in oak leaves. Oak and bamboo symbolize longevity and strength.

• For Kodomo No Hi (Children's Day), families raise colorful carp-shaped "Koinobori" flags, one for each member of the family. The largest carp flag represents the father, followed by the mother and smaller carp to represent children.

They are often strung up like this.

Extra: “Girl’s Day”• “Hinamatsuri”• Is celebrated on

March 3 and is not a national holiday, although there are many that feel it should be. 

• Dolls are often presented to the girls

For more information (about this particular picture), go to: http://www.rediff.com/news/2005/feb/09look.htm

Golden Week Traveling Facts

•If you are going to Japan on business, do not go during Golden Week. However, if you are looking for a lovely time of the year and a cultural experience, by all means, visit during this period.

•For those of you who read manga that was fan-dubbed, or watch anime that was fan-subbed, there are no episodes during this week. That’s because everyone was on their vacation, and weren’t writing/producing. Don’t worry, it’ll all be back next week!

A Golden-Week temple.

Stalls selling food in Hakone (Kanagawa Perfecture, Japan)

Examples of Festivals in AnimeNaruto: while Naruto

stays with Jiraiya to train, they visit a festival. This is a great example of food and games at festivals.

Bleach: although we never actually see the festival, one is going on. This is only in the manga. It’s during the summer time, and has food and fireworks.

Myself; Yourself: A festival goes on in episode 5 (see picture). Like in the other animes listed, you see people wearing a lot of kimonos, eating snacks, and playing games.

Many schools have mini-festivals, for a number of reasons. Some of the Anime they are in are:

-Azumanga Daioh

-Genshiken

-School Rumble

-The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya

A festival in the anime “Myself; Yourself”. Note the covered stalls (similar to the ones in the last picture)

People wear traditional Japanese-wear to festivals, at least in anime. The girl to the below-right is wearing a yukata (Japanese summer wear).

Here are more examples of festival clothing and foods. Like the girl in the slide before this, Ichigo’s sisters (above, right) are wearing Yukata’s. The girl on the right is holding a chocolate covered banana. Ichigo’s dad (above, left) is holding a grilled squid (see Naruto slide), and has a fan ticked into his belt. On his head is a mask, which Naruto also buys in the episode in the slide below.

Takoyaki is a type of dumpling containing octopus. Other foods Naruto mentions in this scene are a potato with butter, chocolate-coated bananas (what Yuzu is holding in the last picture), apricot candy, Okonomiyaki (“meat or seafood in a vegetable pancake”), and yakisoba (literally “fried noodles”, often sold at festivals in Japan).

Apparently, grilled squids are also popular. Ichigo’s father, Isshin, can be seen holding one in slide 16.

Be prepared for lots of food at a festival!

(To the left: grilled squid (read the sub).

Thank you for watching, and feel free to give me suggestions for upcoming slideshows! And if you feel you missed anything in this slideshow, or wanted to review something, you can re-watch the slideshow at

the Anime Club’s website, www.animewriter7.wordpress.com .

It’s perfectly fine to download!

Next Week’s Slideshow Theme: Food!

Credits

Biggest Thanks:  http://www.culturalsavvy.com/goldenweek.htm

(this was the website that I actually copied the information from, because it was becoming to difficult to find information otherwise)

http://www.activityvillage.co.uk/childr2.jpg

http://www.waidev2.com/php/IMAGES/HC_ThisDayInHistory/124---Image_large.jpg

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Takoyaki

http://www.inaruto.net/bleach/bleach-chapter-68/2/

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yakisoba

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yukata

http://www.japanlinked.com/about_japan/images/goldenweektemple.jpg

Credits Continuedhttp://www.japanlinked.com/about_japan/images/coyfestival1.jpg

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DrTuvB5uZio&eurl=

http://im.rediff.com/news/2005/feb/08nlook.jpg

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/c/c2/HakoneFestival0028.jpg

http://www.veoh.com/videos/v2650362nGn5wHKw

http://lcweb2.loc.gov/frd/cs/japan/jp01_07a.jpg

http://theanimeblog.com/2008/05/02/japanese-holidays-shine-during-golden-week-which-would-you-celebrate/

http://www.inaruto.net/, (this was for the list of holidays at the beginning of the slideshow)http://mboogiedown-japan.blogspot.com/2007_05_01_archive.html

‘Lil- Shiro Productions

May 8, 2008

Anime club of 2007-08

Visit: www.animewriter7.wordpress.com

!!!