November holidays
Japan has two traditional national public holidays in November. First, Tuesday, November 9, 2020 was the annual “bunka no hi” Culture Day holiday. First held in 1948, Culture Day is to promote culture, the arts, and academic endeavor. Festivities have typically included art exhibitions, parades, and award ceremonies for distinguished artists and scholars. This year, however, because of coronavirus infection prevention measures, there was none of that.
Culture Day is the occasion for the award ceremony for the prestigious Order of Culture. Given by the Emperor himself to those who have significantly advanced science, the arts or culture, it is one of the highest honors bestowed by the Imperial Family. The prize is not restricted to Japanese citizens. Many foreigners have received it - literary scholar Donald Keene (1922 - 2019), for example.
Second, Monday, November 23, 2020 was the annual “kinrokansha no hi,” Thanksgiving for Labor Day / Labor Thanksgiving Day national public holiday. It is the modern name for an ancient harvest festival. The modern holiday was established after World War II in 1948 as a day to mark some of the changes of the postwar Constitution of Japan, including fundamental human rights and the expansion of workers’ rights. On this day, school children prepare cards or gifts to distribute to police officers, firefighters, hospital staffs.
Because they perceive work as the self-evidently natural purpose of life, a life without labor is not just an unfulfilled life, but a meaningless one as well. So rather than giving thanks for God's unearned, generous abundance, as Americans do, Japanese give thanks simply for having a job. That means having a place in society, a role to fulfill, a purpose, and recognition.