Seijin no hi
成人の日
Seijin no hi (成人の日), also referred to as the Coming-of-Age day or
the Adult Ceremony (Seijin Shiki 成人式), is held on the second Monday
of January of every year. This holiday honors people who have
reached or will, the age of twenty within the current year.
Throughout most of Japan, twenty is the age where people are
subjected to adult laws, gain the right to vote, and to drink, thus
making the age of twenty is the age of adulthood in
Japan.
What is the Seijin no hi Celebration
like?
Usually, the ceremony
takes place in the morning and all the "new adults" in area are
invited. They can be celebrated at local and prefectural offices
and include the families and friends of the new adults. During
these ceremonies, government officials tend to give speeches in
honor. Small presents are also given to the new adults.
Since Seijin Shiki is a national holiday, it is relatively standard
to find women dressed up in beautiful
furisode, a type of
kimono purchased by the parents of the daughter(s)
who will turn twenty. It is made out of very fine, brightly colored
silk and are easily distinguishable by their long sleeves. The name
literally translates to swinging (
furi) sleeves (
sode).
They are generally worn for major social events such as tea
ceremonies or wedding ceremonies for relatives. A furisode normally
costs about ¥100,000–300,000 (roughly 1,000 to 3,000 USD) for the
whole outfit, so generally it is rented or inherited for such
occasions.
Due to their intense difficulty to put on, help is mandatory and
women commonly go to beauty salons to get ready. Ironically,
sometimes these women are accompanied by their already-of-age
boyfriends, who wear normal street clothing. Meanwhile, men who are
coming of age, have far less expensive needs; they usually wear
business suits, though, finding men dressed in
hakama (
dark traditional kimono) is fairly
common as well.
The History of Coming of Age Day - Seijin no
hi
This holiday was rooted from Genpuku, also known as Kakan, which
was the original coming-of-age ceremony. To mark the entry to their
adulthood, boys between the ages of 12 and 16, they were taken to
shrines. There, they were presented with their first adult
clothing, and their boys' hairstyles (
mizura) were changed to the adult style.
Supplementary to that, they were also given new adult names
(
eboshi-na).
In
Heian times, the ceremony was only
restricted to the sons of noble and
samurai families. During the
Muromachi era, it gradually spread to include men
of lower ranks. A similar ceremony for women was called
mogi. This was performed for girls
aged between 12 and 14, and was similarly based around the
presentation of their new adult clothing. The exact age was never
specified and was left for the adults to determine when the child
is mature enough to be deemed an adult.
In 1948, Seijin Shiki became a national holiday and the date was
set to January 15th. Alas, in 1999, the Japanese government created
the
Happy Monday System, which moved quite a few of the
national holidays to Monday, thus Seijin Shiki is now celebrated on
the second Monday of January.
Ending
Seijin Shiki
In the end of Seijin
Shiki, usually in the late afternoon or evening, the new young
adults leave in groups to go to personal parties where they drink
in a continuous celebration of their independence. The new young
adult women are commonly found limping in their zori slippers,
which they are not used to wearing. Later in the evening or at
night, it's not strange to find young adults wobbling around in the
streets, heading happily home from the joyous celebration.