The Vernal Equinox – A National Holiday in Japan (Wed March 21, 2007)

The Tokyo Stock Exchange is usually open from 5pm – 11pm PST (9am – 3pm the next day in Tokyo) and so I was just trying to check it on Yahoo! before calling it a night, as is my routine.  And I was getting frustrated because Yahoo! didn’t have any data for the Nikkei 225.  I kept refreshing and checking again – but no dice.  I checked The Wall Street Journal’s Market Data page and same thing.  Ditto for Bloomberg.  And so I’m wondering “What the heck is going on?”

It occurs to me that there might be some kind of holiday in Japan.  And so it appears to be the case.  According to Wikipedia today is the Vernal Equinox, a national holiday in Japan to celebrate the coming of Spring.  Apparently, many Japanese visit, clean and bring gifts to the graves of their ancestors today to pay their respects.  Fascinating stuff!