Recommended for seniors! Liven up your event with a Respect-for-the-Aged Day quiz!

Because it's the off-season for farming and the climate is good.

Once, September 15 used to be Respect for the Aged Day. The reason is said to be that the original Respect for the Aged gathering, held in what is now Taka Town, Hyogo Prefecture—the birthplace of the holiday—took place on September 15. They chose September because around the 15th was the agricultural off-season and the weather was pleasant. In fact, there are various theories about why September 15 was designated as Respect for the Aged Day. Some say it commemorates the day Prince Shotoku established what we would now call a facility for the elderly, while others link it to an incident involving Empress Gensho at Yoro Falls in Gifu Prefecture.

Ninety-ninth birthday

The celebration for age 99 is written with the characters for “white longevity” and pronounced hakuju. It comes from the celebration for age 100 (hyakuju): if you subtract one from the character for 100 (百), you get the character for white (白). There’s also an interesting theory that by the age of 99, an ordinary person becomes a transcendent being like a sage, and that’s why it’s called hakuju—derived from the image of a sage. Perhaps white was the color associated with sages. By the way, just as the theme color for the 60th birthday celebration (kanreki) is red, the theme color for hakuju is white.