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EveryParampara

Next: 15 Nov 2026

Shichi-Go-San

Children of three, five and seven are dressed in kimono or hakama and taken to the shrine for blessings, with long candy.

Shichi-Go-San
Photo: Bergmann at Japanese Wikipedia, CC BY 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons

When is Shichi-Go-San in 2026?

Shichi-Go-San 2026 is on Sunday, 15 November 2026. Other years: 2027, Monday, 15 November 2027; 2028, Wednesday, 15 November 2028.

About Shichi-Go-San

Shichi-Go-San, "seven-five-three", is celebrated on 15 November, when girls aged three and seven and boys aged three and five (and, in some places, five alone) visit a Shinto shrine to give thanks for growing up healthily and to ask for continued protection. Families dress the children in kimono or hakama, and often have formal photographs made. Priests perform a short purification and blessing. The children are given chitose ame, "thousand-year candy", long red and white sticks in a bag decorated with cranes and tortoises, which are symbols of long life. The ages mark milestones in the old Japanese custom of when children first let their hair grow, wore the obi sash and wore their first hakama.

Shichi-Go-San dates: 2026, 2027, 2028

YearShichi-Go-San date
2026Sunday, 15 November 2026
2027Monday, 15 November 2027
2028Wednesday, 15 November 2028

What is eaten

  • chitose ame

Traditions of Shichi-Go-San

KimonoThe dress worn by girls.

Also part of it, and being written: Chitose ame (The long lucky candy.), Shinto shrine (The place of blessing.).

About this page

Written by the EveryParampara desk with AI assistance. Background: "Shichi-Go-San" on Wikipedia. Customs differ from place to place and family to family. If this is your tradition and we have it wrong, tell us.

Photo credits on this page

The small pictures above come from Wikimedia Commons under free licences. Some are cropped to fit.

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