At a Glance: Golden Week

Posted on 04/30/2021 Last updated on 07/09/2021

Previous photo used: ” Carp streamer in Sagamihara ” by suneko licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 2.0 Generic license. (CC BY-SA 2.0) No changes or modifications made. Wikimedia Commons Link

As April comes to a close, Japan gears up for the annual event known as Golden Week. But what is Golden Week exactly?

Typically running from April 29th to May 5th or 6th, Golden Week or ゴールデンウィーク is a string of consecutive holidays. Golden “Week” is something of a misnomer, as the days add up to less than a full week and in some cases are even broken up (such as this year, where the proper GW days are 4/29 and 5/3-5/6). However, it is not uncommon for some to take additional days off to make it more or less a full week.

The name ‘Golden Week’ dates back to 1948. Following the passing of the National Holiday Laws, a number of holidays fell at the end of April/start of may. Many leisure-based industries experienced revenue spikes at this time, including the film industry. After one of their films experienced a higher-than-ever box office during this time of year, the managing director of Daiei Film Co., Ltd. dubbed it “Golden Week” based on the Japanese radio lingo “golden time”, the period with the highest listener ratings.

The holidays that make up Golden Week are:

April 29th – Shōwa Day (昭和の日, Shōwa no Hi)

May 3rd – Constitution Memorial Day (憲法記念日, Kenpō Kinenbi)

May 4th – Greenery Day (みどりの日, Midori no Hi)

May 5th – Children’s Day (子供の日, Kodomo no Hi)

And there you have it. A short introduction to Golden Week. We here at MUSUBI will be celebrating Golden Week from tomorrow, and will be taking next Tuesday off. Come back on Friday 5/7 for another article about health, food and life in Japan. Until then, Happy Golden Week!

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Photo Credits:

Top photo: ぺたぽんさん on PhotoAC