09: Marine Day ( Third Monday of July )
Marine Day (海の日 Umi no Hi) is celebrated on the third Monday of July. It was establish in 1995, taking place for the first time in 1996. At first Marine day was held on the 20th of July. However, in 2003 the Happy Monday legislation, which was a system that moved some holidays to a Monday in order to make the weekend longer, moved the date from July 20th to the third Monday of July.
July 20th was actually designated Marine Commemoration Day in 1941. It was the day when Emperor Meiji returned to the port of Yokohama in 1876 from a trip to northern Japan. But it was not a national holiday. Eventually some marine-related organisations got together in 1991 to create a holiday for the sea. Thanks to strong public support for the idea, July 20th was finally declared a national holiday in 1995.
Until then, there were no official holidays in June, July, and August, so the Japanese people were happy to get an extra holiday in the summer months. Kids were probably the happiest of all, since they could now start their summer vacation - which normally starts on July 21 - one day earlier.
