Shubun no Hi
🌗 The Autumnal Equinox Holiday in Japan
Shubun no Hi is a Japanese public holiday taking place on September 22 or 23 every year. Its exact date is determined through astronomical calculations of the Autumnal Equinox. When its falls near Keiro no Hi, it allows for a short string of consecutive holidays called the Silver Week.
Shubun no Hi (秋分の日) means "Autumnal Equinox Day" and takes place on a variable date between September 22 and September 24, that is set up through astronomical calculation. This public holiday is the counterpart of Shunbun no Hi (春分の日), the Vernal Equinox Day that usually happens on March 20 or 21 every year.
Origins of Shubun no Hi
The Autumnal Equinox Day has been dedicated to honoring ancestors and the deceased since the early days of the Heian period (794 – 1185) at least.
At the times, it was called Higan no Chunichi (彼岸の中日) and was the middle day of a week of celebrations and sutra chanting. Those ceremonies, that are specific to Japanese Buddhism, were to mark O-Higan (お彼岸), the equinox, which was believed to be a favorable day to connect the world of the living and the afterlife due to the equal duration of the daytime and the nighttime. O-Higan was also celebrated during March equinox.
Much later, the Meiji government introduced Koreisai (皇霊祭) starting 1878: the equinox day became a public holiday to pray for the emperors of the past and for the deceased members of the imperial family. In fall, this day was called Shuki Koreisai, and in spring 🌸 Shunki Koreisai.
In post-war Japan, the spring and fall Koreisai became non-religious public holidays. The autumnal equinox is called Shubun no Hi from 1948 and is dedicated to "honor ancestors and commemorate the deceased".
How to celebrate Shubun no Hi
Nowadays, Shubun no Hi is a stand-alone holiday. However, in the years when it falls on a day close enough to Keiro no Hi’s date, it becomes part of a short holiday period called the Silver Week, which is the autumn 🍁 counterpart of May’s Golden Week.
The next Autumnal Equinox Days will take place on:
- September 23 (Tuesday) 2025;
- September 23 (Wednesday) 2026, creating a Silver Week (Keiro no Hi takes place on September 21);
- September 23 (Thursday) 2027;
- September 22 (Friday) 2028;
- September 23 (Sunday) 2029, (or Monday, September 24 as a "compensatory public holiday").
The idea behind Shunbun no Hi was to allow time for meeting with family and tending to the graves of ancestors. However, this custom seems to be slowly dying away as people also increasingly enjoy leisure travel during the more pleasant early autumn weather.
The autumnal equinox has its own traditional wagashi sweet: the ohagi, made of a mochi rice cake wrapped in azuki red bean paste, sometimes rolled in kinako powder (roasted soy bean flour). These confectioneries can also be used as offerings to ancestors on the day of Shubun no Hi, since its red color is said to ward off evil spirits.
Fall flowers also start blooming around the date of Shubun no Hi, especially red spider lilies, whose Japanese name higanbana means "higan flower." They are usually planted near cemeteries and rice paddies to protect these special places from rodents thanks to a toxic substance contained in its bulb. The spider-like flowers, often red, can be admired pretty much everywhere in Japanese public parks and gardens, and they are especially abundant at Saitama’s Kinchakuda Manjushage Park.