秋分の日

Today is 「秋分の日」 (“Autumn Equinox“).

In Japan, both 「秋分の日」 (“Autumn Equinox“) in September and 「春分の日」 (“Vernal Equinox“) in March are holidays (Click here to read my short FAQ about Vernal Equinox and here for the one about Autumn Equinox).

The time around 「秋分の日」 (“Autumn Equinox“) and 「春分の日」 (“Vernal Equinox“) are both called 「お彼岸」 (“O-higan“).

There’s a type of Lily flower that grows around the 「お彼岸」 (“O-higan“) period in both Spring and Autumn. So it’s called 「彼岸花」 (“Higan-bana”) in Japanese.

「彼岸花」 (Higan-bana)

And there’s a Japanese expression:

暑さ寒さも彼岸まで

It means “Both the hot weather and the cold weather ends at O-higan.”

「お墓参り」 (O-haka-mairi (visiting the family gravesite)) is tradition at 「お彼岸」 (“O-higan“).
And that’s what we did today.
Then we went on a bike ride around the river because the weather was nice today.