vacillated. For the most part the old date has been retained, notwithstanding the change thus caused in the actual day. To take the instance just alluded to, the 7th of the 1st moon, which would formerly have fallen somewhere about the middle or end of February, is retained as the 7th January. In other cases the actual day is retained, irrespective of the date to which it may correspond in the new calendar; but this entails a fresh calculation every year, the old calendar having been lunar and irregular in several respects, not simply a fixed number of days behind ours, as, for instance, the Russian calendar is. A third plan has been to strike an average, making the date of each festival exactly one month later than formerly, though the actual day becomes about a fortnight earlier. Thus the festival of the 7th day of the 7th moon, Old Style, is in some places celebrated on the present 7th August, though really falling somewhere about the 2Oth August, if the calculation be properly worked out. Energetic holidaymakers will even celebrate the same festival twice, first according to the new calendar and then according to the old, so as to be sure of keeping on good terms with the invisible powers that be. Altogether, there is great confusion and discrepancy of usage, each locality being a law unto itself.
The list given above does not of course pretend to be exhaustive. There are local as well as general festivals, and these local festivals have great importance in their special localities. Such are the Gion festival at Kyōtō, and the Sannō and Kanda festivals at Tōkyō. Gion and Sanno take place in the middle of July, Kanda in mid-September. All three are distinguished by processions, of which the chief feature is a train of triumphal or rather mythological cars, called dashi by the Tōkyō people, yama or hoko by the people of Kyōto. These cars have recently been reduced in height, because they were found to interfere with the telegraph, telephone, and electric light wires that now spread their web over the great cities.
Book recommended. Astrologia Giapponnese, by Antelmo Severini, gives details that may interest the student of folk-lore and superstitions, if he can read Italian. We know of nothing on the subject in English.
