Japanese festivals

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Japanese festivals are traditional festive occasions often celebrated with dance and music in Japan. Many festivals have their roots in traditional Chinese festivals, and some ultimately originate in India, but have undergone extensive changes over time to have little resemblance to their original form, despite sharing the same name and date ^{[citation needed]}. There are also various local festivals (e.g. Tobata Gion) that are mostly unknown outside a given prefecture.

Unlike most people in North East Asia, Japanese people generally do not celebrate the Lunar New Year, its observance having been supplanted by the Western New Year's Day on January 1 in the late 19th century (see Japanese New Year); however, many continue to observe several of its cultural practices. Many Chinese residents in Japan, as well as more traditional shrines and temples, still celebrate the Lunar New Year in parallel with the Western New Year. In Yokohama Chinatown, Japan's biggest Chinatown, tourists from all over Japan come to enjoy the festival, similar to Nagasaki's Lantern Festival^[1] based in Nagasaki Chinatown.