, also known as
Health-Sports Day or
Sports Day, is a
national holidayThe of 1948 establishes the legal dates of public holidays in Japan. This article lists those dates.A provision of the law establishes that when a national holiday falls on a Sunday, the next working day shall become a public holiday, known as . Additionally, any day that falls between two other...
in
Japanis an island country in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean, it lies to the east of the Sea of Japan, People's Republic of China, North Korea, South Korea and Russia, stretching from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea and Taiwan in the south...
held annually on the second Monday in October. It commemorates the opening of the
1964 Summer OlympicsThe 1964 Summer Olympics, officially known as the Games of the XVIII Olympiad, was an international multi-sport event held in Tokyo, Japan in 1964. Tokyo had been awarded with the organisation of the 1940 Summer Olympics, but this honor was subsequently passed to Helsinki because of Japan's...
being held in
Tokyo, officially , is one of the 47 prefectures of Japan and is located on the eastern side of the main island Honshū. The twenty-three special wards of Tokyo, each governed as a city, cover the area that was once the city of Tokyo in the eastern part of the prefecture, totaling over 8 million people....
, and exists to promote sports and an active lifestyle.
The first
HealthAt the of the creation of the World Health Organization , in 1948, Health was defined as being "a state of complete physical, mental, and social well-being and not merely the absence of disease or infirmity"....
and
SportSport is an activity that is governed by a set of rules or customs and often engaged in competitively. Sports commonly refer to activities where the physical capabilities of the competitor are the sole or primary determinant of the outcome , but the term is also used to include activities such as...
s Day was held on October 10, 1966, two years after the
1964 Summer OlympicsThe 1964 Summer Olympics, officially known as the Games of the XVIII Olympiad, was an international multi-sport event held in Tokyo, Japan in 1964. Tokyo had been awarded with the organisation of the 1940 Summer Olympics, but this honor was subsequently passed to Helsinki because of Japan's...
. October was chosen for the unusually late Summer Olympics to avoid the Japanese
rainy seasonThe wet season, or rainy season, is the time of year, covering one or more months, when most of the average annual rainfall in a region falls. The term green season is also sometimes used as a euphemism by tourist authorities. Areas with wet seasons are dispersed across portions of the tropics...
, and Health and Sports Day continues to be one of the fairest days of the year.
In 2000, as a result of the Happy Monday Seido, Health and Sports Day was moved to the second Monday in October.
As Health and Sports Day is a day to promote sports and physical and mental health, many schools and businesses choose this day to hold their annual , or
sports daySports days are events staged by many schools in which children participate in competitive sporting activities, often with the aim of winning trophies or prizes. They are usually held in the warmer seasons, either at the beginning or towards the end of the academic year...
.
, also known as
Health-Sports Day or
Sports Day, is a
national holidayThe of 1948 establishes the legal dates of public holidays in Japan. This article lists those dates.A provision of the law establishes that when a national holiday falls on a Sunday, the next working day shall become a public holiday, known as . Additionally, any day that falls between two other...
in
Japanis an island country in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean, it lies to the east of the Sea of Japan, People's Republic of China, North Korea, South Korea and Russia, stretching from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea and Taiwan in the south...
held annually on the second Monday in October. It commemorates the opening of the
1964 Summer OlympicsThe 1964 Summer Olympics, officially known as the Games of the XVIII Olympiad, was an international multi-sport event held in Tokyo, Japan in 1964. Tokyo had been awarded with the organisation of the 1940 Summer Olympics, but this honor was subsequently passed to Helsinki because of Japan's...
being held in
Tokyo, officially , is one of the 47 prefectures of Japan and is located on the eastern side of the main island Honshū. The twenty-three special wards of Tokyo, each governed as a city, cover the area that was once the city of Tokyo in the eastern part of the prefecture, totaling over 8 million people....
, and exists to promote sports and an active lifestyle.
History and Current Practice
The first
HealthAt the of the creation of the World Health Organization , in 1948, Health was defined as being "a state of complete physical, mental, and social well-being and not merely the absence of disease or infirmity"....
and
SportSport is an activity that is governed by a set of rules or customs and often engaged in competitively. Sports commonly refer to activities where the physical capabilities of the competitor are the sole or primary determinant of the outcome , but the term is also used to include activities such as...
s Day was held on October 10, 1966, two years after the
1964 Summer OlympicsThe 1964 Summer Olympics, officially known as the Games of the XVIII Olympiad, was an international multi-sport event held in Tokyo, Japan in 1964. Tokyo had been awarded with the organisation of the 1940 Summer Olympics, but this honor was subsequently passed to Helsinki because of Japan's...
. October was chosen for the unusually late Summer Olympics to avoid the Japanese
rainy seasonThe wet season, or rainy season, is the time of year, covering one or more months, when most of the average annual rainfall in a region falls. The term green season is also sometimes used as a euphemism by tourist authorities. Areas with wet seasons are dispersed across portions of the tropics...
, and Health and Sports Day continues to be one of the fairest days of the year.
In 2000, as a result of the Happy Monday Seido, Health and Sports Day was moved to the second Monday in October.
As Health and Sports Day is a day to promote sports and physical and mental health, many schools and businesses choose this day to hold their annual , or
sports daySports days are events staged by many schools in which children participate in competitive sporting activities, often with the aim of winning trophies or prizes. They are usually held in the warmer seasons, either at the beginning or towards the end of the academic year...
. This typically consists of a range of physical events ranging from more traditional track-and-field events such as the
100 metres100 m is the shortest outdoor sprint race distance in athletics. The reigning 100 m Olympic champion is often named "the fastest man/woman in the world". The 200 m record had often been at a faster average speed than the 100 m record.Sprinters typically reach top speed after somewhere...
or
4 x 100 metres relayThe 4 × 100 metres relay or sprint relay is an athletics track event run in lanes over one lap of the track with four runners completing 100 meters each. The first runners begin in the same stagger as for the individual 400 m race...
to more uncommon events such as the
tug of warTug of war, also known as tug o' war, tug war or rope pulling, is a sport that directly puts two teams against each other in a test of strength. The term may also be used as a metaphor to describe a demonstration of brute strength by two opposing groups, such as a rivalry between two departments of...
and the .
Most communities and school across Japan celebrate Sports Day with a sports festival which is similar to a mini Olympics. These festivals include many of the traditional track and field events, such as 4 x 100m
relayA relay is an electrically operated switch. Electric current through the coil of the relay creates a magnetic field which attracts a lever and changes the switch contacts...
, 100m
sprintA sprint is a sharp burst of forward movement.Sprint may refer to:*Sprint , a type of short race in athletics*Sprint, a major Cellular and Tier 1 telecommunications company in the United States originally called Sprint until July 2005...
ing, and
long jumpThe long jump is an athletics event in which athletes combine speed, strength, and agility in an attempt to leap as far from the take-off point as possible....
, as well as many other events. Some of the events include: ball toss, tug-o-war,
rugbyRugby football may refer to a number of sports through history descended from a common form of football developed in different areas of the United Kingdom. Today it refers to either rugby league or rugby union.- History :...
-ball dribbling races,
sackA sack is a bag, especially a large one for carrying or storing goods.Sack can also mean, as a verb:* To dismiss an employee from a job* To tackle the quarterback behind the line of scrimmage in American and Canadian football...
races, and so on. Another common event is often simply called the “exciting relay”, which is an
obstacle courseAn obstacle course is a series of challenging physical obstacles an individual or team must navigate usually while being timed. Obstacle courses can include running, climbing, jumping, crawling and balancing elements with the aim of testing endurance; sometimes a course involves mental tests.-...
relay including any number of different challenges:
Three-legged raceA favorite at community picnics and school carnivals, a three-legged race is a game of cooperation between partners as much as it is one of speed. It involves two participants attempting to complete a short sprint with the left leg of one runner strapped to the right leg of another runner...
s, making a stretcher with a blanket and
bambooThe bamboos are a group of woody perennial evergreen plants in the true grass family Poaceae, subfamily Bambusoideae, tribe Bambuseae. Some are giant bamboos, the largest members of the grass family. Bamboos are the fastest growing woody plants in the world...
poles and then carrying an “injured” teammate, laundry hanging, crawling on hands and knees under a net, and doing
cartwheelA cartwheel is a part of a cart. It may also mean:*Cartwheel , an acrobatic maneuver*Cartwheel Galaxy*Cart-wheel hat, worn by women*slang term for a silver dollar coin -See also:...
s across a mat.
The festival usually begins around 8:30 am with a parade featuring all the different teams that will be participating: it could be divided by neighbourhood, class, geographic area, or school. There is sometimes a local
marching bandA marching band is, in the broadest terms, a group of performers that consist of instrumental musicians and sometimes dance teams / color guard who generally perform outdoors and incorporate some type of marching with their musical performance. Instrumentation typically includes brass, woodwinds,...
providing music. Once the parade has gone around the field and lined up in the middle, the band will play the Japanese
National AnthemA national anthem is a generally patriotic musical composition that evokes and eulogizes the history, traditions and struggles of its people, recognized either by a nation's government as the official national song, or by convention through use by the people.- History :Anthems rose to prominence...
and the Japanese flag will be raised. Local officials will make speeches welcoming everyone. Often everyone will spread out across the grounds for group
stretchingStretching is a form of physical exercise in which a specific skeletal muscle is deliberately elongated to its fullest length in order to improve the muscle's felt elasticity and reaffirm comfortable muscle tone. The result is a feeling of increased muscle control, flexibility and range of motion...
(this stretching routine was developed by the government and is done daily by many Japanese people; the stretching routine music is broadcast daily on the radio and TV). Then it’s time to start the events.
Every event has prizes for the winners, usually something useful for around the house such as boxes of tissues, laundry detergent, dish soap, hand soap, saran wrap, and so on. Around 12:00 noon, the events will take a pause for lunch and sometimes traditional dancing. Lunch is usually a small Japanese Lunchbox called
Bentōis a single-portion takeout or home-packed meal common in Japanese cuisine. A traditional bento consists of rice, fish or meat, and one or more pickled or cooked vegetables as a side dish. Containers range from disposable mass produced to hand crafted lacquerware...
, including rice, fish, stewed vegetables,
sushiIn Japanese cuisine, ' is vinegar rice, usually topped with other ingredients, such as fish. In spelling sushi its first letter s is replaced with z when a prefix is attached, as in nigirizushi, due to consonant mutation called rendaku in Japanese.Sliced raw fish alone is called sashimi, as...
,
onigiri, also known as or rice ball, is a Japanese food made from white rice formed into triangular or oval shape and often wrapped in nori . Traditionally, an onigiri is filled with pickled ume , salted salmon, katsuobushi, kombu, tarako, or any other salty or sour ingredient as a preservative...
(rice balls) and other small Japanese treats.
As with the Olympics, the final event of the day is the 4 x 100m relay or 100m sprint. Following this, the points totals are tallied and the ending ceremony involves congratulatory speeches by local officials and the handing out of prizes to the top teams.