Saturday, November 8, 2014

Culture Day at Yoyogi Park

We recently celebrated Culture Day, a Japanese holiday. I've copied the text from Wikipedia below explaining the holiday. We went to Yoyogi Park, which was recently re-opened. The park was closed because some people caught Dengue fever from mosquitoes in the park. We saw many people wearing traditional Japanese clothing. I took a ton of photos, so I will share them in the next few posts. Chrysanthemums are popular in Japan from what I've read. We walked through an area lined with potted chrysanthemums. When we went to the Treasure Museum in Yoyogi Park, we saw paintings with chrysanthemums.

"Culture Day was first held in 1948, to commemorate the announcement of the post-war Japanese constitution on November 3, 1946. November 3 was first celebrated as a national holiday in 1868, when it was called Tenchō-setsu (天長節), a holiday held in honor of the birthday of the reigning emperor—at that time, the Meiji Emperor. (See also The Emperor's Birthday.) With the death of the Meiji Emperor in 1912, November 3 ceased to be a holiday until 1927, when his birthday was given its own specific holiday, known as Meiji-setsu (明治節). As Meiji-setsu was discontinued with the announcement of Culture Day in 1948, some see Culture Day as a continuation of this tradition as well—a mere renaming of Meiji-setsu—although they are ostensibly unrelated."


Yoyogi Park -- a map.Yoyogi Park -- Sake barrels.Yoyogi Park -- Sake barrels.Yoyogi Park -- So much wine!Yoyogi Park -- Wine for the enshrined emperor.Yoyogi Park -- Chrysanthemums are very popular in Japan.

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