Monday, November 23, 2009

勤労感謝の日(kinro kansha no hi): Labor Thanksgiving Day

Today is a national holiday called kinro kansha no hi (勤労感謝の日), Labor Thanksgiving Day. It was established in 1948 to respect labor, celebrate production, and extend gratitude for others' effort.
November 23 was used to be niiname sai (新嘗祭), rice harvest festival, and a holiday. Even now, the Emperor dedicates the year's harvest to the god and taste the year's rice for the first time.
In the USA the fourth Thursday of November is Thanksgiving, and people have a turkey dinner.
But we do not do anything special on this day, just thank to have another holiday. It was a very warm nice day here.

No comments:

Post a Comment