We’re just about finished with Golden Week over here: Saturday was Constitution Memorial Day, Sunday was Green Day and Monday waclass=”alignnone size-medium wp-image-43″s Children’s Day. Because Green Day fell on a Sunday this year (which every already has off), Tuesday is a Substitute Holiday. Children’s Day used to be called Boy’s Festival and is often still referred to this way as a counterpart to Hina Matsuri (which isn’t a national holiday, btw), often called “Girls’ Festival” even though this isn’t the correct translation. These two holidays (along with Tanabata in July) are very old and traditional and always fall on the same dates 3/3, 5/5 and 7/7. This day is supposed to celebrate children’s happiness.

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