Autumn Equinox Day in Japan
September 23 · Level 5 · #1202 of 2238
On this Japanese public holiday day and night are roughly equal, and summer finally gives way to autumn. It is a time to honour ancestors and enjoy the changing season.
How it is celebrated: families visit cemeteries, tidy the graves of their ancestors and leave flowers and food. At home people make and eat ohagi, rice balls coated in sweet bean paste, and temples hold services during the Higan week.
The date shifts between 22 and 23 September because it follows the astronomical moment of the equinox. Before the war the day was an imperial ritual honouring ancestors, and it took its present name in 1948.