1 : Japanese calendar
2 : Months
3 : Days
4 : Holidays
5 : Further reading
6 : External Links
Since 1872 Japan uses the Gregorian Calendar, with local names for the months and mostly fixed holidays. Before 1872 a lunisolar calendar was in use, which was adopted from the Chinese calendar.
Months
The name of month: (pronunciation, literally meaning)
Only 師走 is still used nowadays.
Days
Each day of the month has a semi-systematic but irregularly formed name:
{| border="1" cellpadding="2" cellspacing="0"
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|1||一日||ついたち tsuitachi
|2||二日||ふつか futsuka
|-
|3||三日||みっか mikka
|4||四日||よっか yokka
|-
|5||五日||いつか itsuka
|6||六日||むいか muika
|-
|7||七日||なのか nanoka
|8||八日||ようか yōka
|-
|9||九日||ここのか kokonoka
|10||十日||とおか tōka
|-
|11||十一日||じゅういちにち jūichinichi
|12||十二日||じゅうににち jūninichi
|-
|13||十三日||じゅうさんにち jūsannichi
|14||十四日||じゅうよっか jūyokka
|-
|15||十五日||じゅうごにち jūgonichi
|16||十六日||じゅうろくにち jūrokunichi
|-
|17||十七日||じゅうしちにち jūshichinichi
|18||十八日||じゅうはちにち jūhachinichi
|-
|19||十九日||じゅうくにち jūkunichi
|20||二十日||はつか hatsuka
|-
|21||二十一日||にじゅういちにち nijūichinichi
|22||二十二日||にじゅうににち nijūninichi
|-
|23||二十三日||にじゅうさんにち niūsannichi
|24||二十四日||にじゅうよっか nijūyokka
|-
|25||二十五日||にじゅうごにち nijūgonichi
|26||二十六日||にじゅうろくにち nijūrokunichi
|-
|27||二十七日||にじゅうしちにち nijūshichinichi
|28||二十八日||にじゅはちにち nijūhachinichi
|-
|29||二十九日||にじゅくにち nijūkunichi
|30||三十日||さんじゅうにち sanjūnichi
|-
|31||三十一日||さんじゅういちにち sanjūichinichi
|}
Holidays
Notes: Single days between two national holidays are taken as a bank holiday. This applies to May 4, which is a holiday each year. When a national holiday falls on Sunday the following Monday is being taken as a holiday.
The list and the table are to be merged.
The list of national holidays:
This table includes 雑節 (Zassetsu), 二十四節気 (24 Sekki) and some others.
(Except 中元 (chugen) and お盆 (obon), days vary according to the year.)
Some of these names are still used quite frequently in everyday life in Japan. It is common that daily weather reports use 冬至 (Touji).
五節句 (Gosekku)
Further reading
Here is a good website that explains the history of the Japanese calendar:
http://www.ndl.go.jp/koyomi/e
External Links
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See also: Calendar, Japanese era name, Chinese Calendar
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