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Japan
Japan is an island country in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean off the northeast coast of the Asia, Asian mainland, it is bordered on the west by the Sea of Japan and extends from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea ...
ese term applied to a string of consecutive holidays in September, occurring only in certain years.
Overview
In 2009, the term gained popularity, referring to the unusual occurrence that year of a weekend followed by three
Japanese public holidays in September. The holidays were:
*
Respect for the Aged Day
is a public holiday in Japan celebrated annually to honor elderly citizens. It started in 1966 as a national holiday and was held on every September 15. Since 2003, Respect for the Aged Day is held on the third Monday of September due to the ...
, third Monday of September
*
Autumnal Equinox Day
is a public holiday in Japan that usually occurs on September 22 or 23, the date of Southward equinox in Japan Standard Time (autumnal equinox can occur on different dates for different time zones). Due to the necessity of recent astronomica ...
, astronomically determined, but usually September 23
*
Kokumin no kyūjitsu, the day in between the two other holidays
Japanese law stipulates that if there is only one non-holiday in between two public holidays, that day should become an additional holiday, known as a ''Kokumin no kyūjitsu'' (lit. Citizens' Holiday). It is unusual for September to get this extra holiday, so the presence of a "silver week" was not widely noted before 2009. The term "silver week" refers to an imagined second rank after the more famous "
Golden Week". The holiday period is sometimes used for foreign travel.
Prior to 2009, a different definition of Silver Week referred to the days in the second half of November around the time of
Labour Thanksgiving Day
is an annual public holiday in Japan celebrated on November 23 of each year, unless that day falls on a Sunday, in which case the holiday is moved to Monday.
The law establishing the holiday cites it as an occasion to respect labor, to celebr ...
, or during the first week of November by another source.
Historians have identified Silver Week itself as a commercial invention of the 1950s
film industry
The film industry or motion picture industry comprises the technological and commercial institutions of filmmaking, i.e., film production company, production companies, film studios, cinematography, animation, film production, screenwriting, pre- ...
, keen to promote cinema attendance during the holiday by reference to the popularity of leisure pursuits during the better-established Golden Week,
yet another invention of the Japanese film industry. However, this older definition of Silver Week did not catch on nor did it make it to some dictionaries.
Yahoo! Dictionary - no entry found for シルバーウィーク
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September occurrences
The three-day break occurs in the following years:
* September 19 – September 23: 2009, 2015, 2026, 2037, 2043, 2054, 2071, 2099
* September 18 – September 22: 2032, 2049, 2060, 2077, 2088, 2094
See also
*Public holidays in Japan
were first established by the of 1948. It has since been amended 11 times to add additional holidays, the latest being in 2018, for a total of 16 recognized holidays.
Article 3 of this law specifies that when a national holiday falls on a Sund ...
References
Festivals in Japan
Public holidays in Japan
September observances
{{Japan Holidays , state=expanded