Japanese festivals

Many Japanese festivals come from Chinese festivals but most had undergone dramatic changes as they mixed with local customs.

Some are so different that they are not even remotely resembling the original festival. There are also various local festivals (e.g. Tobata Gion) that are mostly unknown outside a given prefecture. It is commonly said that you will always find a festival somewhere in Japan.

Unlike Chinese, Japanese people generally do not celebrate Chinese New Year (it having been supplanted by the Western New Year's Day in the late 1800s), while Chinese residents in Japan do. In Yokohama Chinatown, Japan's biggest Chinatown, tourists from all over Japan come to enjoy the festival. See: Japanese New Year.

See

Fixed days

• Seijin Shiki : Coming of Age Day (second Monday of January)
• Hinamatsuri : Doll Festival (3 March)
• Hanami : Flower Viewing (late March to early April)
• Tanabata : star festival (7 July)
• Shichi-Go-San: festival day for children aged three, five and seven (15 November)
• Omisoka : New Year's Eve (31 December)

Multiple days

• Setsubun : division of season (beginning of each season (spring, summer, autumn, winter))
• Ennichi : temple fair (holy days related to Kami and/or Buddha)

Not fixed

• Japanese Cultural Festival

See also

• Kyushu Festivals
• Culture of Japan
• Japanese calendar
• Matsuri - local Japanese festivals and carnivals.