Monday, January 14, 2013

Coming-of-Age Day "Seijinshiki, 成人式"

Hello, friends, I'd like to introduce Japanese  "Seijinshiki, 成人式" this year again.
In Japan, turning 20 sees the official transition into adulthood, with not only a few doors opening as to what you can now do legally (drink alcohol, smoke tobacco), but also a new set of responsibilities as law regulated.
Coming of Age Day is fairy new celebration day.  It was established in 1948. In the period between 1948 and 2000, it was celebrated on the 15th of January. In 2000 Japanese government introduced so called Happy Monday System or “Happī Mandē Seido. 楽しい月曜日制度”.   Haha, funny mixture of Japanese and English.
According to this system the government moved several national holidays to monday that way creating three days weekends. Coming of Age Day was one of such holidays. As of 2000 the holiday was celebrated on the second Monday in January. So, this year  14th is the coming of aged day.
Young 20-year old people gather city-hall to attend the ceremony♡♡♡




This is me 37 years ago p;)

You can see how simple my kimono and hair style was at that time. 
Recent more modern one, you can see from this page.

4 comments:

Jane H. said...

This is a wonderful post. I am trying to learn more about Japan with my kids (ages 16,14, 10). We would like to go to Japan next year and are trying to work out where we'd like to go and what we'd like to see. I am fascinated by the beautiful furisode that the young women wear on this day. Thank you for explaining more about the holiday.

orchid0324 said...

Dearest Jane H;
Thank you SO much for the sweet comment♡♡♡ I DO wish you and your children will have a wonderful trip to Japan next year.
As my first motive was to introduce Japanese culture to the people in the foreign countries, I'm really happy if I could be any help for you to know my county.

Sending you lots of Love and Hugs from Japan, xoxo Miyako Yamada*

Sallie (FullTime-Life) said...

Miyako, this is so wonderful .... please don't delete the post; it makes it easier for us to find the one last year where you explained the Holiday in greater detail ... I remembered when I went to it, but (because I am old maybe) I needed to read it again to remember. This is a lovely Holiday.

It is funny that your country has adopted the 3-day weekend...some people over here don't like the idea so much. But when we were working, we always appreciated the extra days off!

orchid0324 said...

Dearest Sallie;
Thank you SO much for your sweet comment in this page, my dear friend. I won't delete the post(^_^)v
Oh, the 3-day weekend is also adopted in America as well! You are right; for the people who are working age, the longer holiday can be spent uselessly. Not for us now p;)

My husband got better after having rice porridge (softened rice only with water, I put egg sometimes) for a while.

Sending you lots of Love and Hugs from Japan to my dear friend in America, xoxo Miyako*