Respect-for-the-Aged Day (敬老の日 Keiro no hi). It is no secret that Japan ranks first in the terms longevity in the world. No wonder this country has such a holiday like Respect-for-the-Aged Day. Moreover there is no such a country where people would respect their elders and particularly aged people so much as they do it in Japan. And they say this holiday is one of the most loved and heartwarming among Japanese. Not without reason is there a proverb in Japan: "Conceive the new upon the old”.

The holiday goes back to 1947 when harvest time was ended in September and one of the villages in Hyogo prefecture initiated a Respect-for-the-Aged holiday. After a few years this trend has been taken up by the neighboring villages, and later spread throughout the whole country. And since 1966, September 15 has been celebrated as a national public holiday. In 2003 the holiday was moved to the third Monday of September.