In which calendar does the year end 22?

Goodness, I am soooo far away from writing the date every day that I added another year onto this one. Subliminally I must be desperate to put as much distance between last year and this year as possible.

Oops! Next year is the once a century Setsubun. Got it! :tu:

Last year was Reiwa 2, so we had 2.2.2
It was also a sei-reki palindrome 2020.02.02
There may also be Reiwa 22 in 19 years

Actually, after considering this I think that Setsubun no hi coinciding with 2.2.2 or 2.2.22 will be vanishingly rare in both Western and Japanese calendars, because setsubun no hi usually falls on February 3rd. This year's February 2nd setsubun is a "once in four years" kind of exception to keep the date aligned with the start of spring as determined by the orbit of the earth around the sun. The calendar gets whacked into alignment with the seasons by means of a leap day every four years (with additional fine adjustments that we don't need to get into here).

In 2022, setsubun no hi will fall on Thursday, February 3rd.
Last year's setsubun no hi was Reiwa 2.2.3 and it was not a palindrome.

From next year, setsubun no hi will fall on February 3rd except in years that follow leap years, when it will fall on February 2nd:
https://dengekionline.com/articles/61893/

I can't get my head around how it is that setsubun no hi can fall on February 4th, but it sometimes does - In 1984, the vernal equinox first day of spring fell on February 5th and shunbun no hi was the preceding February 4th.

Thank you for this, I really had no idea that Setsubun ever fell on any other date than the 2nd. I enjoyed the convenience of remembering 1st Jan, 2nd Feb, 3rd Mar (Girls’ Day), 5th May (Children’s Day), 7th Jul (Tanabata - date varies). But it makes sense when one understands the link between Setsubun and the lunar calendar - and no imposed Christian Saint to fix a celestial occurrence to a set feast day (as happens with St Joseph and the Spring/Vernal Equinox and St John and the Summer Equinox/Solstice).

You’ve fully answered (beautifully!) the question I didn’t understand enough to have asked.

For clarification, there is risshun which is determined by the position of the sun and setsubun is the day before risshun.

I see, so during 2013, 2014, 2017 & 2018 risshun fell on the 3rd February which would have meant Setsubun was on the 2nd. These were formative years for LapChild and I would have paid more attention to this annual observance than I ever had before, I see where I got the notion that it was a 2.2 event now. What a ninny!

From 1985 to 2019 russhun fell on the 4th of February so setsubun was on the 3rd.It has to do with leap days in the Gregorian calendar. There is a chart on Wikipedia (in Japanese). Setsubun is on the 2nd in 2021 (令和3年) and the previous time was in 1897 (明治30年). Setsubun was on the 5th in 1984 and the next time is in 2104.

That chart for risshun is quite different from the English one, the four years I mentioned were on the 3rd February but observed in Japan on the 4th.
At least I have something to keep me challenged this lock down, it’s going to take me a while to get my head around all (or rather the pertinent parts of) this.

The English chart is for the GMT+0 time zone. You have to convert it to Japanese time (GMT+9).

We are resigned to the idea of no Japan visit this year. What I am not resigned to, having had such a success with it last year, is not having Shiso (green perilla).

I popped some seeds in the freezer for a night a couple of weeks ago and put them in some little pots to germinate, indoors by our bedroom window. They’re just starting to come out, but I’ll leave them to get hardier before I put them in flower pots outside as slugs and snails love them when they are young and tender (Shiso will resist them as well as caterpillars fine once they get a bit bigger).

I’d like to cordially invite everyone reading this who enjoys Japanese food and cooking at home to plant some of this delicious and versatile herb. If you’re in the Northern side of the world, there should still be some time, even if you haven’t yet ordered it. The seeds are easily available.

And if you ever have a lot of extra leaves, it’s time to make shiso pesto! A really nice twist from the standard basil variant.

Isn’t it? I posted some tips on making this exact same thing in post 184
https://www.flyertalk.com/forum/32598679-post184.html

I'm thinking of trying it with hydroponics using the kratky method since I am not great/experienced with plants and this seems to give a little more leeway for absentminded waterers.

Thanks for the reminder! Time to buy some green shiso seeds https://www.chopstickchronicles.com/...loring%20agent.

I fell down the perilla seed hole and got some green and red shiso from eBay to try. I also found a (local-ish to me) Asian variant seed distributor Kitazawa Seed https://www.kitazawaseed.com/seeds_perilla.html which stocks Japanese and Korean perilla seeds for those growing and cooking their way around the world. I've seen Nukazuke kits but this is the first time I've seen a tsukemono seed kit https://www.kitazawaseed.com/chef_gardens.html