The authors explore the holiday as a historical phenomenon, and its evolution, the formation of social functions and attributes - as an integral part of the national culture of Japan. The origin, concept and content of the festive action, its development along several important lines - agricultural rituals, deification of nature, cult of ancestors, holidays and the state are considered. Particular attention is paid to the problem of the holiday as a factor in the socialization of society at different stages of its development. A description of the most popular and widespread traditional holidays is given. The text of the book was translated from the original language using an artificial intelligence program. For the most part, the translation of the text is of very high quality, but in some cases, due to the imperfection of the technology, there may be incorrect phrase translations in the text, as well as single words and expressions may not be translated.