March in Japan

Doll's Festival, for daughters. A tiered red-felt display of imperial-court dolls — emperor and empress on top, ministers and musicians below — gets set up in the weeks leading in, and is supposed to come down promptly on the fourth, the superstition being that leaving them up delays the daughter's marriage. Hina-arare (pink, white, green rice crackers) and chirashi-zushi (scattered sushi) are the day's food.

Japan's answer to Valentine's, invented domestically in 1978 by a confectionery industry that noticed a one-way gift flow and decided to symmetrize it. Men give white-colored gifts (chocolate, marshmallows, cookies, sometimes jewelry) back to women who gave them honmei chocolate a month earlier. Exists almost nowhere outside Japan, Korea, and Taiwan.

The seven days centered on the spring equinox. Buddhist tradition for visiting family graves, cleaning the headstone, leaving incense and ohagi (sweet rice cakes with red bean paste). Spring equinox day itself is a national holiday; the week around it is when cemeteries fill with families holding small buckets and ladles.

Graduation. High school and university, usually held in the school gymnasium with folding chairs and a closing song that's still often the old Hotaru no Hikari. There's a long-running tradition where a junior asks a graduating senior for their uniform's second button (the one closest to the heart) as a confession of feelings — the practice is in slow decline but hasn't disappeared.

The Meteorological Agency tracks the kaika (first blossoms open) and mankai (full bloom) dates by city. Tokyo's reference tree at Yasukuni Shrine is the one declared on TV. Kaika comes first, usually late March in Tokyo; mankai follows about a week later. The forecast is updated every few days during the run-up, and people genuinely watch it.

Related essay →