Matsuri Japanese Festival Search 2024

A searchable database of 1000+ Japanese Matsuri festivals, including when and where they are happening, in Japanese and English. The data originally comes from the Japanese version of Wikipedia, translated and processed.

We’ve done our best to make sure details are correct – you should be able to use the details to search further and check if you are planning on visiting any of the festivals.

List of Japanese Festivals

What types of Japanese festivals are there?

Japan is a country full of festivals. There are festivals for every season, including the Winter Solstice, the Spring Equinox, and even festivals celebrating penises, much to the delight of, well, pretty much everyone.

Matsuris are often community events that celebrate the past, present, and future. These festivals are an opportunity for everyone to get together and make new friends, while also enjoying traditional Japanese culture. The matsuri’s goal is to bring people closer through common celebratory practices.

Matsuri festivals in Japan vary by the region and the local shrines.

Generally speaking, there are typically three different types of matsuri: festival, harvest, and memorial. A festival is a celebration for a deity; a harvest festival is usually (but not always) held around the time of the traditional rice harvest; and a memorial event is to remember someone who has passed away.

One of my favorite festivals in Japan is the Tanabata Festival. This festival celebrates two celestial lovers who are separated by the Milky Way until they can meet on July 7th each year. On that day, the stars Vega and Altair form a crossing point in the sky that reunites them.

It doesn’t get much more romantic than that. Well, melancholy-romantic at any rate. The Japanese people have a thing for thwarted lovers. Just look at the top 20 most popular Japanese Christmas songs for example, almost all of which are about people unlucky in love on the biggest Western festive day of the year.

Where are festivals held in Japan?

Being in Japan can feel like one huge matsuri.

Festivals are held pretty much all over the country in Japan, from major cities, all the way through to tiny villages.

Matsuri festivals usually occur in a town’s local shrine, but there are some which take place in open fields.

Matsuri were traditionally held to commemorate an important event, such as a harvest or construction project, and often included gods and spiritual services. They also help foster a strong sense of community that breaks down the often strict hierarchal nature of Japanese society.

What are the most famous festivals in Japan?

Some of the most famous festivals in Japan include the annual Gion Matsuri in Kyoto, which happens in July, and the Sanja Matsuri in Tokyo in May.

Every year during these festivals, you will find a number of people wearing traditional clothing, such as happi or hanten, while parading, dancing or otherwise cavorting in a merry fashion through the streets.

When are festivals held in Japan?

Matsuri are held throughout the year with different varieties occurring at different times, but they are generally associated with the hotter months in summer. Some of the most popular matsuri include Setsubun, Higan, Shugetsu, and Obon. A list of when each of these are held can be found on the table below.

When is the Japanese cherry blossom festival?

Japanese festivities happen to coincide with the blooming of the Cherry Blossoms in March or April. There is no way of knowing exactly when this is going to happen each year. Around this time, you actually see the levels of flowering and percentage of bloom reported in Japanese weather reports.

The time is generally not celebrated as organised “festivals” per ce. It is usually celebrated by groups of friends or family that go out to sit under the trees to have their own little parties. This past time of sitting under a blooming tree and sinking some beverages with some friends is called “hana-mi” or “flower viewing”.

How to say festival in japanese

The word for festival in Japanese is “matsuri”, written as 祭り or simply using a single Chinese character (Kanji) as 祭.

The kanji for “matsuri” can also be read as “sai”.

Yes, Japanese is confusing with all of it’s multiple readings for the same character.

You usually hear “sai” for festival used at the end of another word in the form

somethingorother-sai.

So a film festival is an eiga-sai 映画祭, or a school festival is a gakuen-sai 学園祭 。

So if someone asks you to go to the something-or-other-sai, then you better put your yukata and geta on.

Check here if you need to figure out what clothes are most commonly worn at a Japanese festival.