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Since it's December and the holidays, why not take a look at anime holidays? Every anime has probably celebrated a real-world holiday in some form or another, whether it's Christmas, New Year's, or even Golden Week.
Many anime will do something special for the holiday season, whether it's a Christmas special like Love Hina having Keitaro and the girls stuck in a cabin for Christmas or Saiki K's New Year's specials that show the cons of such a festive time.
This list will cover 10 real-world holidays that every anime has celebrated at least once. This will include holidays like Valentine's Day, summer vacations, among others that may not be typically thought of as holidays.
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Disclaimer: Sometimes a holiday will not be universally celebrated but still be added if it shows up more than once in more than one anime. Likewise, spoilers are included, and the opinions reflected therein are only those of the author.
10 holidays universally celebrated in every anime
1) Christmas
The smell of trees, the snow on the ground, the Santa hats and outfits, and presents galore grace the season of giving in December. It’s no surprise that there are over 50 episodes across the anime multiverse that deal with Christmas, whether it’s dressing in Santa outfits and hats or the exchange of gifts.
Sometimes Santa Claus himself appears as a character in anime, other times it’s someone having to dress as Saint Nick to either deliver toys or help kids. The Aggretsuko Christmas Special is one such example, where Ton dresses as Santa and isn't cheap for the day, actually helping people.
Other examples are Big O's battle against a massive sentient Christmas tree called the Demon Seed, Love Hina's Christmas special involving the cast stuck in a cabin, and various specials and celebratory images are usually shared at this time.
2) New Years
Many anime will have New Years be a fireworks festival, a time for reflection, or otherwise ring in the new year in similar fashion. It even lasts three days in Japan.
New Years is typically seen with any number of the above things happening in anime, it’s usually a time for festivals, traditional foods like osechi and mochi are eaten, and postcards are sent. The musical anime K-On showed the main band at a New Year's party and shrine visit. Haikyuu had the Karasuno Volleyball club celebrate the new year before the spring tournament.
On a more humorous note, The Disastrous Life of Saiki K had several anime episodes covering the cons of the holiday. Specifically, those episodes usually cover the sheer volume of the festivities, which overload senses and people's minds and are usually loud and chaotic.
3) Golden Week
Golden Week is a combined series of holidays in Japan that is usually highlighted in most anime that takes place in the modern day. The holidays of the Golden Week include:
- Showa Day (April 29) - Celebrating the life and times of former Emperor Showa Hirohito.
- Constitution Memorial Day (May 3) - commemorates Japan's adoption of the 1947 Japanese Constitution.
- Greenery Day (May 4) - Communing with nature and being thankful for blessings.
- Children’s Day (May 5) - Celebrating children’s personalities and happiness.
All of these holidays show up in anime in one form or another. For example, if a story takes place in the modern day like Haruhi or Lucky Star, it’s a time of fun and frittering away rather than doing homework or overdue studying. That's to be expected, as Golden Week is a holiday for all workers and schoolgoers.
It’s also a good time to shop, as many stores offer discounts. In fact, it gets so chaotic that many anime depict it as a time to endure gridlock because people rush to get the massive discounts and end up clogging up the train system.
4) Health and Sports Day
Health and Sports Day in Japan is usually celebrated on the second Monday in October. It’s now known simply as Sports Day and commemorates the opening of the 1964 Summer Olympics that were held in Tokyo. It now exists to promote sports, physical and mental health, and an active lifestyle. Sports festivals are usually held in schools and businesses and typically function as a miniaturized version of the Olympics, where official track-and-field events and informal tug of war collide.
As such, many anime that showcase this aren’t necessarily dedicated to sports. My Hero Academia had an entire Sports Festival arc that culminated in a fighting tournament. Azumanga Daioh made a sports festival a running gag wherein the students and teachers tried to sabotage each other, often running into each other.
Even Haven't you heard? I'm Sakamoto had the titular protagonist make everyone else look inadequate by comparison as he excelled at every sport.
5) Valentine’s Day/White Day
Valentine's Day and White Day are both considered sweet and romantic holidays. Valentine’s Day itself falls on February 14, and White Day falls on March 14. Valentine’s Day involves women giving chocolate to special men in their lives and “obligation” chocolate to their male coworkers. White Day is the opposite, with men returning the favor shown to them by women on Valentine's Day.
Since both holidays involve chocolate, expect a ton of anime to include these. This usually involves romance anime like Fruits Basket. Sometimes both days are featured in subsequent episodes, like the anime Fruits Basket, or in OVAs like Black Butler.
If this holiday is covered in an anime, shenanigans usually occur involving people trying to give chocolate to a loved one or a crush and confessing their feelings to them during these two days.
6) Summer Vacations/Summer Festivals
A lot of things happen in the summer, with summer break and festivals being one of them. One of them is Bon, which takes place in either July or August (13–15) and is a traditional Buddhist celebration that’s aimed at alleviating the loneliness of deceased ancestors. This festival usually means wearing Yukatas, visiting shrines, and floating paper lanterns down rivers. Summer vacation likewise means a long break for people attending school.
Summer breaks from school are present in nearly every anime that features a school as its central location. In My Hero Academia, it was used for work studies and summer camp Quirk training. In This Ugly Yet Beautiful World, a Bon festival is a plot-relevant event that makes Hikari understand death.
The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya has the infamous Endless Eight series of episodes during a Bon festival too, wherein the cast is caught in a time loop surrounding the festival.
7) Bunkasai/Japanese School Festival
An important annual event at nearly every Japanese school that’s universal in many anime is the Bunkasai, or “Japan Cultural Festival.” This is more commonly seen in the form of school festivals. It’s held in the school itself, usually with homeroom classes having to put on an event while school clubs participate with club theme-related attractions to attract future recruits.
Since plenty of anime take place in or around a school, school festivals tend to be extremely common. Anime as different as Haruhi, Code Geass, and My Hero Academia have done a school festival episode. One particularly lasting example is Negima, which features a city-sized school festival along the lines of Disneyland and Mardi Gras celebrations, featuring lights, animatronics, and other shows only possible because they have magic.
It only gets whackier the sillier the anime, like Yu-Gi-Oh’s version having Yami kill a bully with nitroglycerin on a fried octopus grill or the more lowkey Komi Can't Communicate having Komi start speaking adeptly around someone that isn't Tadano.
8) Tanabata/Weaver Fest/Star Fest
While not typically a national Japanese holiday, Tanabata was imported during the Heian period via the Chinese festival Qixi, or “Night of Sevens.” The festival is based on the legends of star-crossed lovers, Orihime the weaver and Hikoboshi the cowherd, symbolized by the Vega and Altair stars. On a single night every year, on the seventh day of the seventh lunar month, one of them crosses over, and they can be together.
This is typically represented in Japan, China, and Korea by writing wishes on tanzaku paper, hanging them on bamboo, and then setting them afloat on a river or burning them after the festival around midnight or the next day. There are a few series that celebrate this festival: Ranma ½ has two filler episodes around the festival where Ranma takes part in the festival, and an episode of Hidamari Sketch takes place on it.
Orihime from Bleach had the festival as a running theme. She was named after the weaver and could never quite confess her feelings to Ichigo until the anime's end.
9) Hanami/Sakura Festival
Cherry blossoms and flower viewing festivals are usually held in high regard in Japan in the spring, typically throughout April. As cherry blossoms tend to bloom during that time, it’s considered a time of meditation, peace, and relaxation to just go and view them with picnics and the like. It’s usually a popular activity that coincides with Hanamatsuri, or Buddha’s birthday, on April 8, and the Vernal Equinox around March 20.
There are many series with cherry blossoms blooming and flower viewing festivals. Sakura Haruno of Naruto was named after cherry blossoms, and flower viewing is an important tradition and activity as well. Sailor Moon showed several festivals, including a sakura one that was almost ruined by a monster attack. Hayate the Combat Butler did likewise, with everyone trying to enjoy the festivities.
Even Lucky Star’s protagonists get the idea of wanting to invite an exchange student to one, though the exchange student's mind is a little off since he imagines excess drinking and gorging on food.
10) Toro Nagashi/Lantern Floating Festival
Lantern floating festivals involve the release of candlelit paper lanterns into a river to symbolize the guiding of deceased souls. They are used to celebrate Chinese New Year in Nagasaki and the Bon/Obon Festival, among other holidays and festivals. It's usually a very somber affair, yet also beautiful in its lighting and displays.
Various series have had lantern festivals. One of the Mega Man series, Wish Upon a Star, had a lantern festival during its third episode. Tenchi Universe had its own version of lantern lightings, despite all the chaos caused by the various girls during that festival.
Love Hina likewise had a lantern lighting during its Obon Festival episode and manga chapters. That particular part lowered the humor, as it was a bad time for several of the cast.
That does it for this list of 10 real-world holidays that most anime feature. This list only covers 10 holidays that stand out. Other holidays of note are welcome to be suggested in the comments section.
