A pretty new school holiday to commemorate Mt Fuji. It was only enacted 2 years ago. It's a day to remind us of the importance to preserve Mt Fuji's natural beauty and to raise awareness of this vital Japanese symbol.
Do you know?
Why is Mt. Fuji Day designated on 23 February? (This is hearsay though :P) 23 is read as ni-ju-san, which sounds closest to fuji-san, which means Mt. Fuji, hence 23rd was picked.
It's a prefecture designated holiday, so I think schools in other prefectures should be having their lessons as usual.
And interesting to note, only high school students enjoy the holiday; elementary and junior high schools have lessons as usual, I heard. Maybe, because we are under different jurisdiction. Elementary and junior high schools are under city government, while high schools are under prefectural government.
And do you know that Mt. Fuji is not a world heritage site yet? The Shizuoka prefecture government is currently working towards having Mt. Fuji listed as a world heritage site under the UNESCO. Here's the list of world heritage sites in Japan. And unfortuately (but as expected), there's none for Singapore... we are too tiny!
