Home » Journal » December 2026 Festival Calendar: Night Floats in Chichibu, an Ancient Rite in Nara and Tokyo's Year-End Markets

Festival Calendar Published 2026-11-01

December 2026 Festival Calendar: Night Floats in Chichibu, an Ancient Rite in Nara and Tokyo's Year-End Markets

December is not a quiet month in Japan's festival calendar. From the fireworks and towering floats of the Chichibu Night Festival to Nara's On-Matsuri, held every year since 1136, and Tokyo's vast Boro-ichi market, here are the December 2026 dates worth planning around.

Most people picture a Japanese festival in summer: paper lanterns, drumbeats and dancing in the warm dark. December tells a different story. The crowds are smaller, the air is sharp, and some of the year's most dramatic celebrations happen now — a night of fireworks and ten-tonne floats in the mountains west of Tokyo, a courtly rite in Nara that has not missed a year since 1136, and masked gods who visit farmhouses on New Year's Eve. This guide's calendar lists 23 festivals in December; these are the dates to build a trip around.

2–3 December: Chichibu Night Festival, Saitama

The Chichibu Night Festival is December's headline act, and one of Japan's great float festivals — its floats are inscribed on UNESCO's Intangible Cultural Heritage list. On the evening of Wednesday 2 December (the yoimiya, or eve) and through the main night of Thursday 3 December, six enormous kasaboko and yatai floats, each weighing ten tonnes or more and blazing with lanterns, are hauled through the streets of Chichibu to the beat of taiko drums, while fireworks open over the winter sky. Chichibu Shrine's own account records a beloved custom along the route: as the floats pass the Suwa shrine, the drumming falls silent, out of respect for a local legend of two deities who may meet only on this night. Chichibu is an easy day trip from central Tokyo, but trains home after the main night are packed — many visitors stay the night or leave before the final fireworks.

14 December: Gishi-sai, the Forty-Seven Ronin — Tokyo and Ako

On a December night in 1702, forty-seven masterless samurai avenged their lord, Asano of Ako, and were laid to rest beside him at Sengakuji temple in Tokyo. Every 14 December, Sengakuji's Gishi-sai draws crowds to the graves to burn incense, and the town of Ako in Hyogo — the dead lord's home domain — holds its own Ako Gishi Festival with a procession of the forty-seven in period dress. It is the most sombre date in this calendar: part memorial, part history pageant, and a reminder that not every matsuri is a party.

15–18 December: Kasuga Wakamiya On-Matsuri, Nara

Nara's Kasuga Wakamiya On-Matsuri began in 1136, when the regent prayed for an end to epidemics and famine, and Kasuga Taisha lists the central rites for 2026 on 15–18 December. The heart of it is 17 December, when the deity is carried to the Otabisho in a procession of Heian-period costume, and sacred dances and music — kagura, dengaku, bugaku — are offered through the day and night as they have been for nearly nine centuries. Where Chichibu is thunder, the On-Matsuri is candlelight: formal, beautiful, and best watched patiently from behind the ropes.

15–16 December: Setagaya Boro-ichi, Tokyo

Not every December tradition is sacred. The Setagaya Boro-ichi is a flea market that has traded since 1578, and Setagaya City counts around 200,000 visitors a day along Boro-ichi-dori, the street around the old Daikan Yashiki magistrate's residence. Hundreds of stalls sell antiques, second-hand kimono, plants, tools and hot street food from 9 in the morning to 8 at night on Tuesday 15 and Wednesday 16 December — and the whole thing repeats on 15–16 January if you miss it. Bring cash and a big bag; serious bargain hunters arrive at opening time.

31 December: New Year's Eve Visitors — Namahage and Toshidon

December closes with two of Japan's oldest house guests. In Oga, Akita, the Namahage — men in demon masks and straw capes — stomp from house to house on New Year's Eve, roaring for lazy children and blessing the household's diligence. The same night, on Shimokoshiki Island off Kagoshima, the masked Toshidon make their rounds. Both customs belong to the Raiho-shin tradition of visiting deities, inscribed by UNESCO in 2018. They are neighbourhood rites rather than shows, so if you travel to see them, follow the locals' lead and treat people's homes with respect.

One practical note for the whole month: December festivals mean standing outdoors at night, often below freezing outside the cities. Dress for it, and — as with every festival in this guide — confirm the final schedule on the festival's official website before you travel, since winter weather can change a programme. The full list is on our December calendar.

Sources

This article was written for this guide from the sources above. Festival schedules change — the festival's own announcements are the authoritative source.

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