Posts Tagged: japanese calendar

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5
May 10

Japan’s Golden Week, Part 2

Golden Week continues in Japan and we continue our coverage of the holidays. April 29th was the first day to feature a specific holiday. The next is May 3rd, which is Constitutional Amendment Day (kenpou kinenbi).

Constitutional Amendment Day was established in 1947 to honor the first day the country came under the laws of the Constitution of Japan, which was developed alongside the Allied Forces. The Constitution turned Japan into a liberal democracy. (It was previously a militaristic, imperialistic system.) It greatly lessened the role of the imperial family, making them more figureheads than policy makers, and also declared that the country would never again declare war. Instead, Japan would only defend itself if necessary, which is why the Japanese military is now called the “Japanese Self-Defense Forces.” The meaning behind the day is for Japanese citizens to reflect on democracy and government. It’s also the one day per year in which the National Diet Building (where the government—the House of Councillors and the House of Representatives—convenes) is open for public tours.

As discussed previously, the next holiday, Greenery Day, takes place on May 4th. Golden Week’s last national holiday is on May 5th —today! Children’s Day (kodomo no hi) is meant to celebrate children and their fun-loving, innocent personalities as well as to honor parents (particularly mothers) for raising them. It was originally known as Boys’ Day and was meant only to celebrate sons (as there is another holiday in March to celebrate daughters), but it was changed in 1948 to Children’s Day to celebrate all children.

An iconic symbol of Children’s Day is the koi (carp)-shaped koinobori flags. Households traditionally hang these flags from their rooftops, one for each of the parents and each of the children who live inside. Another tradition is to display a Kintarou (a fabled adventurous boy) doll and a kabuto (samurai helmet) inside the house, as these are symbols of healthy and strong boys. Today in Japan, many families are eating kashiwa-mochi (red bean rice cakes wrapped in oak leaves) and chimaki (sweetened rice paste in a bamboo or iris leaf) to celebrate.

Have you ever heard of Children’s Day or Constitutional Amendment Day? Do you think it’s fair that Boys’ Day was changed to Children’s Day when there’s still a Girls’ Day?

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3
May 10

Japan’s Golden Week, Part 1

This week, Japanese students and many Japanese businesspeople are sitting back, relaxing and enjoying their week off. The first week in May (actually April 29th to May 5th) is called “Golden Week” (ougon shuukan) in Japan because the close proximity of national and cultural holidays means that schools and many businesses close for 7 to 10 days. Of course, many shops remain open, public transportation continues to run, hospitals are still open, etc., so not every worker in Japan has the time off, but after the time around New Year’s, Golden Week is the second most important nation-wide vacation from school and work and the most popular time for travel.

What holidays make up this Golden Week? April 29th is Showa Day (Showa no hi). The day was the Showa Emperor (better known as Emperor Hirohito in the West)’s birthday and the birthday of the emperor is always a national holiday in Japan. (The current emperor’s birthday is in December.) This should no longer have been a holiday following the Showa Emperor’s death in 1988, but it was first changed to Greenery Day (midori no hi) immediately after his death to continue honoring him (read on for more information on Greenery Day). In 2007, Greenery Day was moved and replaced with Showa Day.

Showa Day, unlike Greenery Day, is not intended to honor the deceased emperor himself. Also, unlike Greenery Day, it publicly acknowledges that the Showa Emperor held his position during “turbulent times” in Japanese history. (The Showa Emperor was emperor during World War II in his youth and encouraged the country’s imperialistic war.) The day encourages Japanese citizens to reflect on that period in history and the way the country drastically changed before, during, and after the war. The Showa Emperor held his position until his death, meaning that during the Showa Era, he ruled during war time, depression, economic recovery and the transformation of Japan into a global industrial and economical leader.

Greenery Day, now May 4th, was originally intended to honor the Showa Emperor indirectly by honoring his love for nature and gardens. The day asks the Japanese citizens to honor nature and recognize all that nature provides, even in a technology-heavy world.

Come back Wednesday as Golden Week continues to learn more about the other holidays during this week.

Do you know any Japanese people who have off for Golden Week? Do you like the idea of Greenery Day or Showa Day better to recognize the late emperor’s birthday? Why?

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20
Apr 10

Saying the Year in Japanese

The last time we talked about language in this blog, we covered how to say the day and date in Japanese. Conspicuously missing was how to state the year. In this short lesson, we’ll take a look at how to pronounce the year in Japanese, but first you’ll need to review the Numbers Lesson.

There are two ways to state the year in Japanese. The first is based on the international Gregorian calendar, in which this year is considered 2010. To state the year in Japanese according to the Gregorian calendar, simply state the number followed by one pronunciation for the word for “year,” which is “nen.” Just remember that 2010 is not “twenty ten,” but actually “two thousand and ten.” For example:

Year Japanese Pronunciation
1910 sen kyuu-haku juu-nen
1920 sen kyuu-haku ni-juu-nen
1930 sen kyuu-haku san-juu-nen
1940 sen kyuu-haku yon-juu-nen
1950 sen kyuu-haku go-juu-nen
1960 sen kyuu-haku roku-juu-nen
1970 sen kyuu-haku nana-juu-nen
1980 sen kyuu-haku hachi-juu-nen
1990 sen kyuu-haku kyuu-juu-nen
2000 ni-sen-nen
2010 ni-sen juu-nen

To get the years in between the decades, just count upwards. For example, 1976 is “sen kyuu-haku nana-juu roku-nen” and 2009 is “ni-sen kyuu-nen.”

There is another way to state the year in Japanese that is based on the Japanese imperial rule. According to this calendar, a year is referred to by the title for the emperor’s reign, the number of years for which he has been crowned emperor at that point, and the word for year, “nen.” (Note: The first year in the emperor’s reign is not referred to as “year 1” [“ichi-nen”], but is instead referred to as “gannen,” which means “original year.”)

Although this system wasn’t widely adopted until the Meiji Era (1868-1912), this system of dating stretches back thousands of years. However, we’ll just worry about the most recent imperial eras here.

Imperial Era Years Applicable
Meiji 1868-1911
Taisho 1912-1925
Showa 1926-1988
Heiwa 1989-present
Year (Gregorian Calendar) Year (Imperial Calendar) Japanese Pronunciation (Imperial Calendar)
1910 Meiji 43 Meiji yon-juu san-nen
1920 Taisho 9 Taisho kyuu-nen
1930 Showa 5 Showa go-nen
1940 Showa 15 Showa juu go-nen
1950 Showa 25 Showa ni-juu go-nen
1960 Showa 35 Showa san-juu go-nen
1970 Showa 45 Showa yon-juu go-nen
1980 Showa 55 Showa go-juu go-nen
1990 Heisei 2 Heisei ni-nen
2000 Heisei 12 Heisei juu ni-nen
2010 Heisei 22 Heisei ni-juu ni-nen

The most recent imperial years are sometimes abbreviated with the roman letters “S” for “Showa” and “H” for “Heisei” on official documents.

So how do we say today’s date? First, let’s use what we learned earlier this month to state, “Today is Tuesday, April 20th” in Japanese:

Kyou wa shigatsu hatsuka kayoubi desu.

Remember that the order is: month, day of the month, day of the week. To add the year to that sentence, you should state it in the following order: year, month, day of the month, day of the week. So “Today is Tuesday, April 20th, 2010 (Heisei 22)” is:

Kyou wa ni-sen juu-nen shigatsu hatsuka kayoubi desu.

-or-

Kyou wa Heisei ni-juu ni-nen shigatsu hatsuka kayoubi desu.

How about stating when you were born? State the date, year first, and finish the sentence with “ni umareta (casual)” or “ni umaremashita (polite)” (“[I] was born.”) So “I was born on October 15th, 1983 (Showa 58)” is:

Watashi wa sen kyuu-haku hachi-juu san-nen juugatsu juugo-nichi ni umareta.

-or-

Watashi wa sen kyuu-haku hachi-juu san-nen juugatsu juugo-nichi ni umaremashita.

-or-

Watashi wa Showa go-juu hachi-nen juugatsu juugo-nichi ni umareta.

-or-

Watashi wa Showa go-juu hachi-nen juugatsu juugo-nichi ni umaremashita.

What year were you born? Practice converting it into the imperial equivalent. State your full birthday in Japanese. Continue practicing by stating the full birthdays of all of your friends and family members.

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9
Apr 10

Saying the Day and Date in Japanese

If you’ve been teaching yourself Japanese with the grammar lessons on this site, you ought to have a firm grasp on basic counting in Japanese. You’ll need to know those numbers to be able to say the date in Japanese—but it’s not as simple as saying the word “one” for the first of a month, for example.

Let’s start with the days of the week. The vocabulary for the days of the week are:

Sunday nichiyoubi
Monday getsuyoubi
Tuesday kayoubi
Wednesday suiyoubi
Thursday mokuyoubi
Friday kinyoubi
Saturday doyoubi

Each day of the week is named after an element or the sun or moon. Interestingly, the word for “Sunday” uses the kanji for “sun” and the word for “Monday” uses the kanji for “moon.” These two days of the week are named after the sun and moon in English as well.

The months of the year are a little easier than the days of the month because they follow a basic pattern. Just state the number of the month in Japanese and add one pronunciation of the word for “month,” “gatsu.”

January ichigatsu
February nigatsu
March sangatsu
April shigatsu
May gogatsu
June rokugatsu
July shichigatsu
August hachigatsu
September kugatsu
October juugatsu
November juuichigatsu
December juunigatsu

Most of the days of the month are simply the basic number in Japanese plus one pronunciation for the word “day,” which is “nichi.” However, there are a few exceptions, which are bolded:

1st tsuitachi 17th juushichi-nichi
2nd futsuka 18th juuhachi-nichi
3rd mikka 19th juuku-nichi
4th yokka 20th hatsuka
5th itsuka 21st nijuuichi-nichi
6th muika 22nd nijuuni-nichi
7th nanoka 23rd nijuusan-nichi
8th yooka 24th nijuuyokka
9th kokonoka 25th nijuugo-nichi
10th tooka 26th nijuuroku-nichi
11th juuichi-nichi 27th nijuushichi-nichi
12th juuni-nichi 28th nijuuhachi-nichi
13th juusan-nichi 29th nijuuku-nichi
14th juuyooka 30th sanjuu-nichi
15th juugo-nichi 31st sanjuuichi-nichi
16th juuroku-nichi

Now you should have enough information to say today’s date, minus the year. But first you’ll need to know the word for “today,” which is “kyou.”

Kyou wa shigatsu kokonoka kinyoubi desu. = Today is Friday, April 9th.

(Notice that the order is month, day of the month, day of the week.)

You might also want to say when your birthday is. The word for “birthday” in Japanese is “tanjoubi.”

Watashi no tanjoubi wa juugatsu juugo-nichi desu. = My birthday is October 15th.

There’s one more set of vocabulary you may need to know when talking about the date—the questions to ask when you don’t know what day it is (or what day someone is going to make plans). Just say the word for “what,” “nan,” and add the common ending for that particular question.

What day of the week? nanyoubi
What month? nangatsu
What day of the month? nan-nichi

Kyou wa nanyoubi desu ka. = What day of the week is it today?

Kyou wa nan-nichi desu ka. = What’s today’s date?

Tanjoubi wa nangatsu desu ka. = What month is your birthday?

When is your birthday? When is your friends’ birthdays? State them all in Japanese. Practice stating the day’s date in Japanese every day from now on.

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23
Feb 10

“Out with Demons! In with Luck!”: Throwing Beans for Setsubun

Earlier this month, you might have been walking down a Japanese residential street only to come across Japanese people tossing beans outside of their front doors.

Maybe you even visited a nearby temple or shrine and saw someone wearing a mask made to look like the classical Japanese art depiction of a demon (complete with two horns) dancing around and falling victim to a crowd’s flying beans.

The bean-throwing and demon-mask antics are part of Setsubun, a traditional Japanese holiday that takes place on the eve of the new season. The most widely celebrated of these holidays takes place on February 3rd. How is early February, in the midst of winter, a new season? The seasons traditionally celebrated by Setsubun are based on the ancient Japanese lunar calendar and there are 24 seasons in the year! According to this ancient calendar, early February is the start of spring and is called Risshun.

So about the time we’re asking groundhogs to predict how much winter is left (throwing beans doesn’t seem so silly in comparison, does it?), the Japanese are already celebrating the start of spring, be it in a traditional sense. (Meteorologically, Japanese spring starts between March and May, depending on the region.) The traditional Setsubun celebration was meant to cleanse all bad luck from a person’s house that accumulated in the former year (in traditional Japan, like traditional China, the New Year begins in spring and is based on the lunar calendar) and drive away any malevolent spirits that have been possessing the home. The homeowners then ask that good luck and good spirits come into the home.

The Japanese word for beans, mame, is a homonym for “the eyes of evil,” so it is believed that beans were chosen as the tools with which to drive away the evil because the homeowners would then be grabbing evil by the eyes and tossing it away from the house. The beans are usually roasted soybeans. During this ceremony, called Mamemaki (bean throwing), homeowners shout, “Oni wa soto! Fuku wa uchi!” which means “Out with demons! In with luck!” as they either throw beans out the door or at a family member wearing a demon mask.

Today most Japanese don’t believe in the spiritual aspect of the tradition, any more than people in North America believe that groundhogs can predict the weather. But the tradition is a part of their culture and it can be fun to participate in the festivities. During Haru Matsuri (the Spring Festival in early February), Shinto shrines and Buddhist temples hold a celebration and on Setsubun participants can grab some beans and throw them at people wearing demon masks.

Have you ever participated in Setsubun? (It’s a popular activity in Japanese classes in North America, too.) Would you want to be dressed up as the demon and attempt to avoid the beans or would you rather do the throwing?