Silver Week シルバーウィーク (Shirubā Wīku)
Genre	String of consecutive holidays
Date(s)	September
Country	Japan

Silver Week (シルバーウィーク, Shirubā Wīku) is a new Japanese term applied to a string of consecutive holidays in September, occurring only in certain years. In 2009, the term gained popularity, ^[1] referring to the unusual occurrence that year of a weekend followed by three Japanese public holidays in September. The holidays were:

• Respect for the Aged Day, third Monday of September
• Autumnal Equinox Day, astronomically determined, but usually September 23
• Kokumin no kyūjitsu, the day in between the two other holidays

Japanese law stipulates that if there is only one non-holiday in between two public holidays, that day should become an additional holiday, known as a Kokumin no kyūjitsu (lit. Citizens' Holiday). It is unusual for September to get this extra holiday, so the presence of a "silver week" was not widely noted before 2009. The term "silver week" refers to an imagined second rank after the more famous " Golden Week". The holiday period is sometimes used for foreign travel. ^{[2] [3]}

Prior to 2009, a different definition of Silver Week referred to the days in the second half of November around the time of Labour Thanksgiving Day, ^[4] or during the first week of November by another source. ^[5] Historians have identified Silver Week itself as a commercial invention of the 1950s film industry, keen to promote cinema attendance during the holiday by reference to the popularity of leisure pursuits during the better-established Golden Week, ^[5] yet another invention of the Japanese film industry. ^[6] However, this older definition of Silver Week did not catch on nor did it make it to some dictionaries. ^[7]

September occurrences

The three-day break occurs in the following years:

• September 19 – September 23: 2009, 2015, 2026, 2037, 2043, 2054, 2071, 2099
• September 18 – September 22: 2032, 2049, 2060, 2077, 2088, 2094

See also

• Public holidays in Japan

References