Japan Creates Holiday to Celebrate Mountains

Japan has more national holidays than any of its developed peers and it recently added Mountain Day to the list.

Parliament passed a bill designating Aug. 11 as a day to celebrate the nation’s peaks bringing the number of holidays to 16.

“Central to Japanese culture are the ocean and the mountains. There is a day for the ocean, but not one for the mountains,” said ruling Liberal Democratic Party lawmaker Seishiro Eto, who led the drive for the new holiday.

“Japan is a country with a lot of natural disasters — earthquakes and volcanoes — and people are going to be in trouble if they can’t respond to those things,” said Gota Isono, secretary-general of the National Council for the Establishment of Mountain Day. “It will make Japanese people stronger.”

Mountain Day enthusiasts hope the day will motivate people who normally don’t get outside to interact with nature.

Mountain Day will be celebrated starting in 2016.

Perhaps one day we will celebrate a Canadian mountain day.