Festivals in Japan

thumb|Hanami picnics in front of Himeji Castle, 2005 thumb|upright|Osaka Castle

, also called '''Doll's Day or Girls' Day''', is an annual festival in Japan (but not a national holiday), celebrated on 3March of each year. Platforms covered with a red carpet material are used to display a set of representing the emperor, empress, attendants, and musicians in traditional court dress of the Heian period.

thumb|right|Women dressed in yukata at Tanabata thumb|Tanabata festivities in Hiratsuka, Kanagawa in 2023 , also known as the , is a Japanese festival originating from the Chinese Qixi Festival. It celebrates the meeting of the deities Orihime and Hikoboshi (represented by the stars Vega and Altair respectively). According to legend, the Milky Way separates these lovers, and they are allowed to meet only once a year on the seventh day of the seventh lunar month of the lunisolar calendar. The date of Tanabata varies by region of the country, but the first festivities begin on 7 July of the Greg

is a traditional Japanese rite of passage and festival day for three- and seven-year-old girls, and five-year-old and sometimes three-year-old boys. It is held annually on November 15 and celebrates the growth and well-being of young children. As it is not a national holiday, it is generally observed on the nearest weekend.

public holiday in Japan

Japanese public holidays in May

national holiday in Japan

thumb|A mikoshi of Hiyoshi-taisha thumb|Mikoshi fighting on Nada-no-Kenka Matsuri at Himeji thumb|This mikoshi enshrines Tokugawa Ieyasu at the [[Tōshō-gū in Nikkō.]] A is a sacred religious palanquin (also translated as portable Shinto shrine). Shinto followers believe that it serves as the vehicle to transport a deity in Japan while moving between main shrine and temporary shrine during a festival or when moving to a new shrine. Often, the mikoshi resembles a miniature building, with pillars, walls, a roof, a veranda and a railing.

thumb|upright=1.3| at Chizu, Tottori with a patterned windsock at the top

traditional Chinese holiday

Japanese holiday

thumb|Hōnensai

type of Japanese festival

festivities of Japan often infused with Shintoism, Buddhism and other domestic customs.

national holiday in Japan

The is a recitation show that is performed at Yahashira Shrine in Kami-fukawa village, near the city of Nara.

type of dance

or , meaning, "moon-viewing", are Japanese festivals honoring the autumn moon, a variant of the Mid-Autumn Festival. The celebration of the full moon typically takes place on the 15th day of the eighth month of the traditional Japanese calendar, known as ; the waxing moon is celebrated on the 13th day of the ninth month, known as . These days normally fall in September and October of the modern solar calendar.

agricultural ritual held in Oku-Noto area, Ishikawa, Japan

Japanese dessert consisting of 2 round mochi, the smaller placed atop the larger, and a daidai with an attached leaf on top, with a sheet of konbu and a skewer of dried persimmons under the mochi

Japanese summer festival

were rustic Japanese celebrations that can be classified into two types: that developed as a musical accompaniment to rice planting observances, and the dances that developed in conjunction with . The celebrated for rice planting was performed by villagers either at the New Year or during the planting season in early summer. It was only in the 14th century that these dances were brought to the cities and incorporated into Noh theater, notably by the playwright and actor Kan'ami. The instrument of is the , a wooden percussive instrument clapper, though there are other instruments that can be us

A is a Japanese drinking party that takes place at the end of the year and is generally held among groups of co-workers or friends. The purpose of the party, as its name implies, is to forget the woes and troubles of the past year, and hopefully look to the new year, usually by consumption of large amounts of alcohol. A bōnenkai does not take place on any specific day, but they are usually held within December.

Japanese festival with puppets

Rice transplanting ritual in Hiroshima, Japan

carnivalesque celebrations, communal activities, and protests in Japan in 1867–68

Japanese festival

an annual event held by most schools in Japan

annual Japanese festival

Japanese traditional dance

float that is pulled or carried during a festival in Japan

festival in Nagasaki, Japan

Shinto shrine in Aichi Prefecture, Japan

Annual Japanese festival

A shinnenkai (, literally "new year gathering") is the Japanese tradition of welcoming the arrival of the New Year, usually by the drinking of alcohol.

type of dance

thumb|Ōharai on the last day of the year, at Daiichi-Torii-Nai-Haraedo, Naiku

Annual festival in Japan

Utagaki (歌垣), also read kagai (嬥歌), was an ancient Japanese Shinto ritual gathering. Villagers would meet on a mountaintop, where singing, dancing, eating, having free sexual intercourse and the reciting of poetry would occur, in celebration of the beginning of spring or autumn. These events were closely associated with harvest rites, and therefore fertility.

The are four wooden posts or pillars that stand on the four corners of local shrines in the Lake Suwa area of Nagano Prefecture (historical Shinano Province), Japan. The largest and most famous set of are those that stand on the four shrines that make up the Suwa Grand Shrine complex.

Chichibu Shrine's annual festival celebrated on the nights of December 1-6

annual festival in Fukuoka, Japan

East Asian festival

Annual traditional Japanese festival

horse festival in Morioka, Japon

Japanese holiday

alt=Shinto Shinsen|thumb|271x271px|Shinto Shinsen are offerings of foods given up to Shinto shrines or kamidana in Japan.

thumb|Shinko shiki for Tokugawa Ieyasu at . thumb|Underwater shinko shiki at Shinko-shiki (神幸式), also known as Shinko-sai (神幸祭), is a ceremonial practice within Shintoism involving the procession of a kami's shintai, or divine object. The shintai of the Kami is transferred from the primary Shinto shrine to a Mikoshi, a portable shrine, as part of the ritual. Typically, this ceremony occurs within the context of an annual festival hosted by a shrine. The procession is regarded as a means through which the Kami may inspect and validate the boundaries of a particular neighborhood or parish.

Japanese festival

string of consecutive holidays in Japan

Japanese cart-pulling festivals

Japanese festival

Japanese city celebration