Japan is a country of many holidays. Today I would like to introduce a very interesting holiday celebration which is known as Coming of Age Day or Adult's Day. This Day usually falls in the second Monday of January.
This national holiday encourage those who have newly entered adulthood to become self-reliant members of society. Coming-of-age ceremonies have been held since time immemorial in Japan. In the past boys marked their transition to adulthood when they were around 15, and girls celebrated their coming of age when they turned 13 or so. During the Edo period (1603-1868), boys had their forelocks cropped off, and girls had their teeth dyed black. It wasn't until 1876 that 20 became the legal age of adulthood.
These days, males generally wear suits to their coming-of-age ceremony, but a lot of females choose to wear traditional furisode - a special type of kimono for unmarried women with extra-long sleeves and elaborate designs. For unmarried women, furisode is about the most formal thing they can wear, and so many of them don it to the event marking the start of their adult life.
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