Nōkamatsuri
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| Nōkamatsuri | |
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 Floral arrangements in Hinagawa-Toshitake Hanamatsuri. The capital city's flower festival is part of the Nōkamatsuri celebrations. | |
| Observed by |  Aizawa |
| Significance | Appeasement to the Arakami deity of agriculture and giving honor to Aizawa's hardworking farmers |
| Date | Second week of May |
| Frequency | Annual |
Nōkamatsuri (農家祭り, lit. farmer's festival) is an Aizawan holiday that takes place annually on every second week of May. The festival is celebrated in honor of the 4.5 million Aizawan agricultural workers that work tirelessly for the principality and Komashi itself, and to express appeasement to the Arakami deity of agriculture.
The holiday has several other celebrations that also focus on agriculture, such as the Hinagawa-Toshitake Hanamatsuri, where flowers are arranged into large, aesthetically pleasing arrangements of differing themes.
History
The initial Nōkamatsuri started at most random occasions in older Aizawa, primarily set during the major harvest days. Many towns across the principality had their own variations of the festival, and lasted for only a day, or two, with most returning to work shortly after.
The formal, monarchy-wide holiday, was declared on every second week of May by the Royal Family of Aizawa in 1665, when the monarchy found a pattern that most towns and cities had their festivals around the time period. As such, the first week-long celebration of Nōkamatsuri kicked off a year later, with the festival guidelines primarily focused into appeasing the Arakami god of agriculture, and creating camaraderie amongst the farmers. The tradition then got stuck, with most celebrations becoming extravagant as time passed.
Today, the modern celebrations of the holiday still follow the traditional guidelines as it was centuries ago, but with more modern styling into the classical themes of the old era.
Celebrations
On the entire week of the holiday, the Aizawan monarchy suspends all public and private school classes, and most private and a number of non-essential government work is also suspended to accommodate a large populace to promote the festival even further.