Rankings
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- Founders and National LeadersIn federal law the third Monday in February is still called Washington's Birthday. It is written that way in 5 U.S.C. §6103(a), the section that lists all eleven legal public holidays, and the Office of Personnel Management footnotes every annual holiday table to say that although states and businesses may use other names, its policy is to use the name in the statute. "Presidents' Day" is a state and retail habit that federal law never adopted. Taiwan went the other way and gave one man two dates: Article 3 of its Commemorative Days and Holidays Act lists both the birthday of the founding father (12 November) and the anniversary of his death (12 March), and Article 4 grants a day off for neither. Japan stripped every personal name out of its holiday law in 1948; none of today's sixteen national holidays carries an individual's name, and 29 April commemorates the Shōwa era rather than the emperor who reigned through it. Brazil's first republican decree in 1890 named Tiradentes outright, while the statute in force today says only "21 April".
- Environment DaysEnvironment days almost never come with a day off. Across these seven countries there is exactly one exception, and it exists by accident: 4 May in Japan, Midori no Hi, is a statutory public holiday under article 2 of the Act on National Holidays. It began as the Showa Emperor's birthday on 29 April; when the throne passed in 1989 the birthday moved to December and the empty 29 April was renamed Greenery Day so the day off would survive, then shifted again to 4 May in 2007. Everywhere else the environment day is written into a statute, a decree or an assembly resolution — and the same instrument says nobody stops working.
- Days for Elders and GrandparentsAll seven markets set aside a day for their oldest members, and no two of them put it in the same place on the calendar. Taiwan's Grandparents' Day is the fourth Sunday of August, promoted by the Ministry of Education since 2010, with no day off. Japan's Respect for the Aged Day is a public holiday on the third Monday of September. China writes the Double Ninth into its law on the rights of the elderly and calls it Seniors' Day — and still does not close for it. What differs is not only the date but where the day stands institutionally: statute in one place, an education campaign in another, a local edition of a United Nations day in a third.
- Days of the Jewish calendarRosh Hashanah, Yom Kippur, Passover and Hanukkah are national holidays nowhere — not even in the United States, home to the largest Jewish community outside Israel, where the holidays for federal employees are fixed by statute at 5 U.S.C. 6103 and contain exactly one religious festival, Christmas. What differs from country to country is what a state offers instead. New York City closes its schools for Yom Kippur; New Jersey obliges every district to excuse a student on any of fourteen Jewish days; Brazil gives every student a statutory right to sit an exam on another date. Taiwan, Japan, China, India and Indonesia carry none of these days at all, and each for a different reason.
- Equinoxes and SolsticesThese are the only holidays whose date nobody chose. The sun reaches a point on the ecliptic and that is the day. What differs is how each state writes that fact into law. Japan made the spring and autumn equinoxes statutory holidays without naming a date, leaves the calculation to its national observatory, and only fixes each year's dates in an official gazette the previous February. Taiwan's holiday act dates exactly two days by solar term and never mentions the winter solstice. In China only one statutory holiday, Qingming, is dated by the sun. India's Makar Sankranti has drifted three weeks away from the solstice it once marked. The United States skipped astronomy altogether and legislated "the second Sunday of March."
- Long Holiday WeeksSeven places all end up with a run of consecutive days off, and not one of them builds it the same way. Japan's holiday act fills the gap by itself and nobody has to announce anything. China's State Council issues a notice every November that borrows weekends forward and takes them back afterwards as working Saturdays. Indonesia's joint leave is decided by three ministers together — and it is deducted from the worker's own annual leave. Taiwan rewrote its holiday law in 2025 and now only adds compensatory days, never borrowed ones. Brazil bridges with unnamed days declared by ministerial order that bind federal offices only. The United States moved five holidays to Mondays in 1968 and has done nothing since. India leaves it to the states, under a banking statute from 1881.
- Mid-Autumn and Moon ViewingAround the same full moon, four different observances: Taiwan and mainland China take the day off, eat mooncakes, and gather as a family; the Korean-ethnic community of Yanbian in China keeps it as Chuseok, where tomb-sweeping comes first; and Japan does not close at all, treating it as an astronomical and seasonal night — where the national observatory is explicit that the 'harvest moon' is often not that night's full moon.
- Official Languages by Country: Who Decides?Which language is official depends on where the rule lives: Indonesia and Brazil name a state language in their constitutions, India sets the Union's official language in its constitution, China promotes Putonghua through an education clause without naming an "official language", and the United States designated English by executive order in 2025. Japan has no statutory official language, while Taiwan recognises multiple national languages.
- Teachers' DayIn 2027, the dates on this page are India on 5 September, mainland China on 10 September, Taiwan on 28 September, Brazil on 15 October, Indonesia on 25 November, Singapore on 3 September (estimated from the school calendar), and the United States' Teacher Appreciation Week on 3–7 May, with local district dates varying. Only Taiwan makes Teachers' Day a national day off; the other dates are commemorative or school-community observances. The page then explains why each place chose its date.
- Tanabata and QixiOne legend about a weaver and a herdsman, one date in the seventh lunar month, and three societies that made three different festivals out of it. Taiwan keeps it on the lunar calendar and stacks two things on the same day — a couples' evening and a coming-of-age rite in Tainan. China registered it as national intangible heritage but left it off even the list of days explicitly named as non-holidays. Japan moved it onto 7 July when the country switched calendars in 1873, while Sendai pushed it a month later to 6–8 August. This page compares where the day sits in law, who gets time off, and what each place kept of the story.
- HalloweenNo country on this board has made Halloween on 31 October a public holiday. What differs is how far each government goes anyway. The United States leaves it out of the federal holiday statute, yet the FDA polices costume contact lenses as medical devices and one Ohio city moves trick-or-treating to 29 October in 2026. Japan has no national rule at all and two Tokyo wards with ordinances of their own — one of whose mayors published a request that people stay away. Brazil never gave the day off, and then legislated a rival festival onto the very same date.
- Shopping FestivalsShopping festivals are the one kind of festival the retail trade invented for itself and the state had to regulate afterwards. Federal law in the United States knows Thanksgiving but has never heard of Black Friday. China's market regulator writes to the platforms every year and fixes the reference price for a discount at the lowest transaction price of the previous seven days. Indonesia's Harbolnas carries the trade ministry's name, and the minister himself sells on livestream. India regulates not the discount but the interface. Buy the same thing on the same day and the answer to "can I send it back, for how long, and who pays the postage" is different in every market.
- Farewells and FuneralsFunerals follow two clocks: an administrative clock and a family or religious clock. Japan generally requires a 24-hour wait before burial or cremation; Taiwan gives 30 days for death registration, India 21 days, while Brazil often holds the wake and burial within 24 hours. Muslim communities in Indonesia commonly bury on the same or next day, whereas Balinese ngaben may be delayed for months or years. Mainland China's household-registration and cremation rules, and the US state-by-state death-certificate system, also shape the timetable. This guide separates paperwork, timing, and mourning practice.
- Indigenous and Colonial MemoryIn the United States the second Monday in October is one square on the calendar claimed by two names. Federal law has not moved: 5 U.S.C. 6103 still lists Columbus Day, and 36 U.S.C. 107 still asks the President for an annual proclamation marking "the anniversary of the discovery of America." Everything else moved around it — South Dakota replaced the day with Native Americans' Day in 1990, Maine renamed it in 2019, Alabama keeps three names on one line, and the White House issued Indigenous Peoples' Day proclamations for exactly four years. Taiwan wrote three such commemorations into statute and gave a day off to none of them, Brazil renamed its day in 2022 without making it a holiday, India created one in 2021, and Japan recognised an indigenous people without giving it a date.
- Beer FestivalsThe same German festival, exported, and the decisive difference is where the state stands. Brazil's Oktoberfest in Blumenau is run by the city itself — the venue is listed among the municipal organs. China's Qingdao International Beer Festival is run by the municipal government and falls in July and August, not October, tracing back to a brewery German and British merchants built in Qingdao in 1903. In the United States the Cincinnati festival is privately run and the state's only role is a temporary liquor permit that by law may not be issued for private gain. In Indonesia, alcohol control means the event does not exist at all.
- Ghosts, Ancestors, and RemembranceThis guide looks at Ghosts, Ancestors, and Remembrance through dates, relationships, and local differences. It does not assume that every household or community follows the same practice.
- Labour Day Dates by CountryLabour Day usually falls on 1 May, but the date and the time off depend on the country: the United States observes Labor Day on the first Monday of September, Japan works on 1 May between its Golden Week holidays, and India leaves 1 May to state and institutional calendars. Taiwan, mainland China, Brazil and Indonesia all place a public observance on 1 May, with different rules for who gets time off and how long the break lasts.
- National DaysThe seven national days commemorate different kinds of events: the United States, Brazil, Indonesia and India mark the moment of leaving colonial rule or declaring independence; mainland China marks the founding of a state; Taiwan marks an uprising that ended an empire; and Japan's National Foundation Day has no corresponding dated historical event at all, being set on a legendary enthronement. What this page compares is where each place places the day a country is counted from.
- Family Care and GenerationsFamily care is not only a question of living together: it is also about who is legally responsible and where support can be requested. Taiwan routes long-term care through its 1966 assessment line; Japan uses long-term-care insurance funded from age 40 and assessed mainly from 65; India allows older people to seek maintenance through tribunals, while Brazil writes older people's rights into law. Mainland China and Indonesia still rely heavily on family and community networks, and US support is split across Medicare, Medicaid, private insurance, and self-pay. This guide compares law, public services, and what families can realistically carry.
- War dead and veteransThe United States splits the dead from the survivors into two separate federal holidays: Memorial Day in May for those killed, Veterans Day on 11 November for those who came home. The other six countries mostly set aside a single day, and mostly do not give it off — Taiwan lets the defence ministry decide who gets the day, Japan's 15 August rests on a cabinet decision rather than any statute, and Indonesia's Heroes' Day is filed by presidential decree under "national days that are not holidays".
- Harvest and GratitudeWhether the harvest becomes a holiday, and who gets to define it, is answered five different ways: the United States built a federal holiday around the family table; India's Pongal is timed by the Tamil calendar and the sun's entry into Capricorn, and the pot of rice is the rite itself; Brazil ties it to three saints' days in June; mainland China created a farmers' festival by State Council approval in 2018; and Japan rewrote a prewar imperial harvest rite into a national day for thanking labour.
- Children's DaySix places put Children's Day on six different dates, spread from April to November, and 'who gets the day off' differs too: Taiwan closes for everyone, mainland China gives the day off only to children under fourteen, Japan writes thanking the mother into the statutory purpose, Indonesia's is a presidential-decree observance with a ministry theme each year, Brazil's shares its date with the country's patron saint, and India's is tied to Nehru's birthday.
- New Year'New Year' is not one day. Taiwan and mainland China keep the first day of the first lunar month; Japan, the United States, Brazil and Indonesia take 1 January; and India's national holiday list contains no 1 January at all — there the new year falls in March or April and carries a different name in each state. This page compares which day each place treats as the beginning, and how many days off follow.
- CarnivalCarnival is not a public holiday in Brazil. It is a *ponto facultativo* — a discretionary day off that the management ministry designates by decree each year for federal offices, with Ash Wednesday running only until two in the afternoon. The largest festival on earth has no statutory holiday status in its own country; it rests on an administrative order reissued every year. The United States turned it into a Louisiana state holiday, Japan moved it to August and dropped the fast, and Goa kept the form left behind by Portuguese rule.
- Other days of the Islamic calendarBeyond Ramadan and the two Eids, the Islamic calendar carries several more days: the New Year on 1 Muharram, Ashura on 10 Muharram, the Prophet's birthday, and Isra Mi'raj. Of the seven places compared here, only Indonesia and India put any of them on the official calendar — and the two do not mark the same day. Indonesia takes 1 Muharram; India's gazetted "Muharram" is the tenth, Ashura, a full ten days later in 2026. Their Mawlid dates fall a day apart. How the date is fixed, and by whom, tells you more than the date itself.
- The Christian calendar’s other daysBeyond Christmas and Easter, the same Easter computus produces a whole series of days: Ash Wednesday, Good Friday, Ascension, Pentecost, Corpus Christi. How far a national calendar follows that series varies enormously. Indonesia, with the largest Muslim population in the world, makes both Good Friday and Ascension statutory national holidays and adds a collective leave day after Ascension. Brazil, the largest Catholic country, treats Corpus Christi at federal level as an optional working day, not a statutory holiday — it becomes a real holiday only where a city council has legislated one. The United States federal list of eleven holidays contains exactly one Christian day, Christmas. Pentecost appears nowhere: it always falls on a Sunday.
- Cross-border Q&AWondering how people in Taiwan, Japan, the United States, India, Indonesia, or Brazil study, shop, celebrate, or handle an ordinary errand? Ask the question and let someone who lives there answer. This space is open all year.
- What voting asks of you, country by countryArticle 14 of Brazil's constitution makes voting a duty for citizens between eighteen and seventy, and you must account for missing it. Taiwan's Public Officials Election and Recall Act says in Article 17 that you vote at the polling station of your household registration — there is no absentee ballot, so election day becomes an island-wide journey home. China's constitution reserves direct election for the county and township level. And in the United States, federal law fixes election day as the Tuesday after the first Monday in November — a day that is not a holiday. One act, seven different answers to who may vote, where, and whether the day belongs to you.
- How many days to register a residence permit — and does a new address or a new job have to be reported?Taiwan's Alien Resident Certificate, issued by the National Immigration Agency, must be applied for within 30 days of entry, and an address change reported within the same 30-day window — miss it and the Immigration Act sets a fine of NT$2,000–10,000. Japan's Residence Card runs on a tighter clock: 14 days, whether it's the first address registration or notifying a change of employer, both fixed by the Immigration Control Act. Mainland China gives registered residence-permit changes 10 days (Exit-Entry Administration Law, Article 33), and staying somewhere other than a hotel only 24 hours (Article 39). The United States has no national residence-registration office at all, but a registered alien's change of address is still bound by federal law — 8 U.S.C. § 1305 — to the same 10-day window, in writing. India runs on visa category rather than a single residence card: an Employment or Student visa valid over 180 days must be registered with the FRRO within 14 days of arrival. Indonesia caps an address change at 14 days, with the sponsor jointly responsible for reporting it. Brazil is the most generous: a temporary-visa holder has 90 days to register with the Federal Police. On whether the work permit and the residence permit are the same document, the seven countries split two ways: Taiwan, China, and Indonesia issue two documents from two agencies; Japan builds work eligibility directly into the residence status itself; and in the United States, the Green Card is itself the proof of work authorization.
- International Women's DayMarch 8 falls on the same day in all seven places compared here, and is treated completely differently by each legal system. China gives women a paid half-day, written into the State Council's holiday regulation. Taiwan lists it as a "festival" but its statute states plainly that it is not a day off. The United States does not use the single date at all, designating all of March as Women's History Month. Brazil is the odd one out: its national women's day sat on April 30 until a 2025 law moved it to March 8. What this page compares is not who values women more, but how far each system formally recognises the same date.
- Lantern FestivalThe same lunar date is three different scenes in Taiwan alone — eating tangyuan and walking through a lantern display, releasing sky lanterns in Pingxi, or standing inside a wall of exploding fireworks in Yanshui — while in mainland China it is a working day, not one of the days off for all citizens. This page compares ritual intensity and civic status under one calendar date.
- How many paid leave days, how overtime is paid — what differs across seven countriesTaiwan's Labor Standards Act Article 38 tiers annual leave into six bands: 3 days at six months, 7 at one year, 10 at two years, 14 a year from three to five years, 15 a year from five to ten years, and one extra day per year after ten, capped at 30 — and unused days aren't lost, since Article 38(4) requires the employer to pay wages for them. Japan's Article 39 starts at 10 days after six months and rises to a 20-day cap at 6.5 years; since 2019 employers must ensure workers with enough entitlement actually take at least 5 days, but under Article 115 anything left unused after two years simply expires — no payout. Mainland China's Regulation on Paid Annual Leave requires 12 months of continuous service to qualify, then grants 5, 10, or 15 days by cumulative tenure, with 300% of the daily wage owed for any day the employer fails to schedule (Art. 5). US federal law has no statutory annual leave at all — the Fair Labor Standards Act simply doesn't regulate vacation, leaving whether and how much to employers or states. India's leave protection long lived only in Factories Act Section 79, covering factory workers who hit 240 days a year at one day per 20 worked; shops and services were always governed by separate, inconsistent state laws, and a national labour code only lowered the threshold to 180 days in November 2025. Indonesia's Manpower Law Article 79 grants 12 days after 12 months; the old mandatory two-month long-leave benefit after six years' service is now merely optional under the amended law. Brazil's CLT Article 130 grants 30 days, but unjustified absences during the year shrink it, and a worker may cash out up to a third of it (Art. 143). Overtime pay diverges even more: Taiwan pays a one-third premium for the first two extra hours and two-thirds beyond that; Japan adds a 50% premium past 60 hours a month; China runs three tiers — 150% on weekdays, 200% on rest days, 300% cash-only on statutory holidays; the US only counts 1.5x for hours past 40 in a week, with no daily rule and no hour cap; India pays a flat double time beyond statutory hours; Indonesia pays 1.5x the first hour and 2x after, capped at 4 hours a day; Brazil requires at least a 50% premium but caps overtime at 2 hours a day.
- Diwali Dates and HolidaysDiwali is a five-day season, not a single day. This page separates the main day (Lakshmi–Ganesha Puja) from the opening Dhanteras and the closing Bhai Dooj, and compares two very different statuses: a national holiday with a five-day ritual sequence in India, and a public-school closure in New York City that only became law in 2023.
- Compulsory education: from what age to what age — and whose duty is itTaiwan's Compulsory Education Act sets six to fifteen, nine years, and leaves compulsory enrolment itself to a separate statute. Brazil's Article 208, as amended in 2009, runs from four to seventeen — the widest span of the seven. India's Article 21A covers six to fourteen and sits in the Part on fundamental rights, so it can be taken to court. Indonesia's Article 31(2) puts the duty on both sides at once: the citizen must attend basic education and the government must pay for it, with a further clause reserving at least twenty per cent of the budget for education. Japan's Article 26 places the duty on parents. China's Article 46 makes education a right and a duty in the same sentence. The United States has no federal rule at all: each state sets its own start and end ages.
- Eid al-AdhaOne date in the Islamic calendar, four different institutional treatments: Indonesia makes it a national holiday and adds joint leave; India lists it among national holidays; the United States has no federal holiday but New York City public schools close; and in Brazil it is not even a statutory commemorative date yet — a Senate committee only approved adding Islamic festivals to the national calendar in 2024. What this page compares is the level of recognition, not the details of the rite.
- Graduation SeasonGraduation does not fall in one universal month: Japan graduates in March before the April school year, Taiwan and mainland China mostly in June–July, US districts in May–June, India around March–May alongside board-exam results, Indonesia in May–June before its July school year, and Brazil in December. In mainland China, the gaokao and university choices can matter more than the ceremony; in India, results and admissions do the same, while Indonesia has only a short gap before registration for the next year. This guide compares the ceremony with the administrative next step.
- Coming-of-Age RitesLegal adulthood and a coming-of-age ceremony are not the same line. Taiwan, mainland China, and India place civil adulthood at 18; Japan lowered it to 18 in 2022, although many local adult ceremonies still focus on 20. Indonesia gives an identity card and voting rights at 17 but ends the child-protection definition at 18, Brazil has an 18-year line with routes to earlier full capacity, and the United States assigns voting, drinking, contracting, and other rights to different ages. This guide separates law, ritual, family recognition, and personal choice.
- Newborns and the First MonthNewborn life follows two clocks: birth registration and family celebration. Japan gives 14 days for the birth notification, India 21 days, mainland China one month, Brazil 15 days with a longer period for remote areas, Taiwan and Indonesia generally 60 days, while the US leaves the process to each state. Family customs run on another schedule: Japan has a seventh-day naming and shrine visit, Indonesia has seventh-day aqiqah, and Taiwan and mainland China often mark the first month with a gathering. This guide separates documents, names, blessings, visits, gifts, and early care.
- EasterEaster's institutional position differs sharply across these four places, and not in the direction most people expect: Muslim-majority Indonesia lists four Christian observances as national holidays — Good Friday, Easter, Ascension and Christmas; the Christian-majority United States lists none of them as federal holidays except Christmas; Brazil hands the decision on religious holidays to municipal councils with a cap of four; and India's national list carries Good Friday rather than Easter Sunday.
- Ramadan and Eid al-FitrTaiwan does not make Eid al-Fitr a statutory holiday; in Indonesia, the first day of Ramadan is announced by the Ministry of Religious Affairs at the preceding night's sidang isbat, while the Eid break is scheduled separately around 1 Shawwal. This page separates “when Indonesia starts fasting” from “when Eid leave begins” and compares the institutional treatment in India, Taiwan, the United States, and mainland China.
- Emancipation DaysThe two largest slaveholding societies in the Americas both waited until the 2020s to put abolition on the national holiday calendar — the United States in 2021, Brazil in 2023 — more than a century and a half after slavery ended in law. Both arrived the same way, from below: Texas made 19 June a state holiday in 1980, and Brazil's 20 November passed through the school calendar and then a commemorative-date statute before it became a holiday. India has no abolition holiday; the closest date, Ambedkar Jayanti on 14 April, is not even on the central government's annual holiday list and is granted each year by a separate order. Taiwan names 21 March in statute and expressly gives no day off, Japan has the law but no date, and neither Indonesia's nor China's national holiday list contains anything of the kind.
- Health coverage: who's required to have it, and who actually paysTaiwan's National Health Insurance Act declares enrollment mandatory in its very first article, launched in March 1995, with premiums split employer 60%, insured person 30%, government 10%. Japan closed the last gap in "universal coverage" only in 1961, after a 1958 law forced every municipality to run its own scheme; patient co-payments still scale by age, from 10% at 75-plus to 30% between 6 and 69. Indonesia's 2004 SJSN Law states outright that "participation is compulsory," and a foreign worker becomes covered after six months on the job — almost the same threshold Taiwan uses. Brazil's SUS is the direct product of Article 196 of its 1988 Constitution, "health is a right of all and a duty of the State," free to anyone within its borders. China, by contrast, reports 95% nominal coverage, but its employee and resident schemes reimburse hospital stays at rates 18 points apart — 84.1% versus 66.0%. India has no universal mandate at all: PM-JAY reaches only the poorest 40% of households, and out-of-pocket spending still runs 43.4% of the total. The United States is the only one of the seven with no coverage guarantee whatsoever — its federal mandate has existed in name only since 2019, 8.0% of the population remained uninsured in 2024, and it spends more per person on healthcare than any other.
- Maternity, Paternity and Parental LeaveTaiwan's Labour Standards Act gives eight weeks of maternity leave, fully paid after six months of service. Japan's goes further in a different direction: Article 65 forbids an employer to let a woman work for eight weeks after birth — not a right but a prohibition. Brazil's Consolidation of Labour Laws sets 120 days. Indonesia's Law 4 of 2024 sets a floor of three months and a further three if needed, with the wage percentage written out month by month. The American FMLA says in plain words that the leave "may consist of unpaid leave". And India is stranger still: the constitution requires the state to provide maternity relief, in a part the constitution itself says no court may enforce.
- Religion and the state: how far apart a constitution puts themThe very first line of Article 29 of Indonesia's constitution is that the state is based upon belief in the One and Only God. Brazil's Article 19 runs the other way, forbidding the Union, the states and the municipalities to establish religions, subsidise them, or maintain relations of dependence or alliance with them. Japan's Article 20 goes further into detail — no religious organisation may take privileges from the state, and public authorities are kept out of religious teaching and observance altogether — with Article 89 barring public money from religious bodies. The American First Amendment says Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion. China's Article 36 guarantees freedom of belief but protects "normal religious activities" and states that religious affairs are not subject to foreign domination. India's preamble calls the republic secular, while Article 25 includes the right to *propagate* religion. Taiwan's Article 13 is seven characters long: the people have freedom of religious belief.
- Father's DayFather's Day sits on three different dates across four places, and the origins have nothing in common: Taiwan picked 8 August because 'eight-eight' sounds like the word for dad, the United States took nearly sixty years to legislate it in 1972, and Brazil's was invented in 1953 by an advertising man to fill a gap in the second half of the retail year. What this page compares is where the day came from — a pun, a statute, or an ad campaign.
- Minimum Wage by CountryMinimum wage is set nationally in some places and regionally in others: China uses provincial tiers, the United States combines a federal floor with state rates, Japan has 47 prefectural rates, and Indonesia sets annual provincial UMP figures. Taiwan and Brazil publish a national number, while India's national floor remains under consultation. This comparison explains who sets the rate, how often it changes, and who the legal floor covers.
- Birthdays and BlessingsBirthdays are more than cake: Taiwan uses both completed age and traditional age and often marks longevity from sixty; Japan legally moved away from kazoedoshi while retaining milestones such as kanreki; in the U.S., ages 16, 18, and 21 unlock different rights. India may distinguish the Gregorian date from a tithi, Indonesia often makes syukuran about sharing, and Brazil has the festa de 15 anos. This guide compares dates, age systems, food, gifts, and family rituals without treating one birthday format as universal.
- Dragon Boat FestivalThe fifth day of the fifth lunar month is a public holiday in both Taiwan and mainland China, while Japan moved the same 'fifth of the fifth' onto the Gregorian calendar and turned it into a statutory children's day. This page compares four things: who gets the day off, where the rice dumplings and the boats sit, how far local versions are listed as heritage in their own right, and how the day was re-defined in Japan as respecting a child's character while also thanking the mother.
- Valentine's DayThere is more than one day for showing affection, and they do not fall together: Japan has women giving chocolate on 14 February and a return gift on 14 March, Taiwan keeps both 14 February and the lunar Qixi, Brazil places it on 12 June, India stretches it into a week, and the United States keeps it to a single day. This page compares who gives, who returns, what is given, and how large a measurable trace the day leaves in each place.
- Homecoming and ReunionHomecoming is not one holiday pattern: Taiwan's main wave is Lunar New Year; Japan has year-end/New Year and Obon; China's roughly forty-day chunyun surrounds Spring Festival; and Thanksgiving drives the largest U.S. wave. India's travel follows state festivals, Indonesia's mudik clusters around Idul Fitri, and Brazil's return trips also follow school and family calendars. This guide compares dates, leave, transport pressure, and ways of reuniting, while leaving room for people who cannot or do not want to travel.
- Mother's DayFour places keep Mother's Day on the second Sunday of May; Indonesia keeps it on 22 December — and there it is not a day for thanking mothers but a political commemoration of the first Indonesian Women's Congress of 1928. This page compares how the day was established in each place: a congressional resolution, a statute that names it and explicitly gives no day off, a peak in the cut-flower trade, or the starting point of a women's movement.
- University Entrance ExamsEvery country here runs a national test that decides university places, but how tightly that decision is compressed varies enormously. China squeezes it into two days, June 7 and 8. Brazil does the opposite, spreading it across two Sundays a week apart in November. India goes further still, dispersing subject papers across nearly two months. Japan and Taiwan run a two-stage system: one national test, then each university's own. The United States is the only place with no national entrance exam at all. The same question — how an eighteen-year-old should be measured — gets seven different answers.
- Year-End Bonus and the Thirteenth SalaryTaiwan's year-end bonus rests on Article 29 of the Labor Standards Act, which applies only when the business closes its year with a surplus — a condition, with no deadline and no penalty, so the amount is the company's call. Brazil is the opposite: the thirteenth salary has been a statutory obligation since 1962, first instalment by 30 November and second by 20 December, with fines for lateness. Indonesia's THR must be paid in full seven days before the religious holiday, never in instalments, with a 5 per cent fine if late. The same idea — extra money once a year — runs from binding law to pure custom across the seven markets, and that is what decides whether anyone can rely on it.
- Moving Home and HousewarmingMoving home has two separate questions: whether an address must be registered with one authority, and how a household marks the new threshold. Taiwan generally gives 30 days for a change of household registration, Japan 14 days for a move-in notification, mainland China ties the move to the hukou, and Indonesia updates the KTP and family card. India requires several separate updates such as Aadhaar, electoral records, and bank KYC, while the US and Brazil have no single address-registration system. This guide compares paperwork with housewarming, prayer, purification, gifts, and neighbours.
- ChristmasDecember 25 is not the same thing in seven places. Brazil, the United States, Indonesia, and India list it as a statutory holiday; Taiwan closes that day for Constitution Day instead; Japan and mainland China treat it as a working day. This page compares its legal standing, the rhythm of the days around it, and how households and commerce each take part.
- School Start DatesThere is no single back-to-school date: Japan's school year runs from 1 April to 31 March, Taiwan's administrative year starts on 1 August while pupils usually return in early September, and mainland China sets the autumn start through local calendars in late August or early September. Indonesia usually starts in the third week of July, India has a state-by-state April–June window, Brazil commonly starts in February, and US districts choose dates from late July to early September. This guide separates dates from uniforms, fees, transport, and the work families do before term begins.
- University entrance exams: what you take, who runs it, and what else countsTaiwan sits its Scholastic Aptitude Test and Subject-Specific Test (both run by the CEEC) across three tracks with distinct rules: Application Admission caps the exam at half the final score, weighing the rest on portfolio and interview; Placement Admission ranks purely by exam score; and Star Recommendation goes on in-school class rank alone, no exam-based placement needed. China runs the gaokao (coordinated nationally by the Ministry of Education, held every June 7–8) on a 750-point "3+1+2" structure, plus a separate 强基计划 that adds a campus test for basic-science talent. Japan holds one national Common Test each January through the DNC, but national and public universities layer a second, university-run exam on top. The United States has no national exam at all — the federal Department of Education has no authority over admissions — and the well-known SAT/ACT are private tests (College Board, ACT Inc.) that most selective schools weigh alongside GPA and essays; about 25% of four-year colleges had open admissions as of fall 2021. India's National Testing Agency runs three separate exams by field: JEE Main (engineering, twice a year), NEET UG (medicine, once a year, now the sole basis for admission nationwide), and CUET UG (general undergraduate, once a year, already replacing Class 12 marks at roughly 48 central universities). Indonesia's state universities split admission three ways — SNBP on report-card achievement (minimum 20% of seats), SNBT on the computer-based UTBK test (minimum 30–40%), and university-run Jalur Mandiri (up to 30–50%). Brazil's ENEM, run once a year by INEP, feeds into SiSU for public-university places under a quota law, while state universities like USP and UNICAMP still run their own vestibular. No two of the seven countries do it the same way — they differ in how many times a year, who administers it, and how much the score alone decides.
- Conscripted, registered, or merely obliged on paperArticle 1 of Taiwan's Military Service Act is a single sentence — every male citizen has the duty to serve — and Article 16 sets active conscript service at one year. China's constitution calls military service an "honourable obligation". Brazil's constitution says obligatory, then lets conscientious objectors take alternative service and exempts women and clergy in peacetime. The United States is stranger: 50 U.S.C. §3802 requires men aged 18 to 26 to register, and almost nobody is ever called. Japan's constitution keeps no land, sea or air forces at all. Indonesia and India both write a duty to defend into their constitutions and have no conscription. The same phrase, and a gap that runs from a year in barracks to a single form.
- Pet Preparedness and Disaster PlanningPet preparedness is more than buying extra food. It turns “what if the power fails, we move, travel, or evacuate?” into a plan for identification and medical records, food, water and medicines, a carrier or leash for each animal, a place that accepts pets, backup carers, and reunion after separation. Official guidance in Taiwan, Japan and the United States puts this work before the emergency; “evacuation together” does not necessarily mean people and pets share the same room. This guide separates everyday moving and travel from disaster planning and leaves room for species-specific needs.
- Pets and Family LifeCalling an animal family does not make it a person in law. Taiwan defines pets broadly and requires necessary care for injured or ill animals; Japan describes ownership as a lifelong responsibility that also reaches neighbours; in mainland China, dog registration and public conduct are largely handled through city rules. India, Indonesia, Brazil, and the United States draw different lines through animal welfare, public health, local government, and commercial transport. This page asks who carries the duty, which animals count, and how affection is negotiated in shared space.
- Rental deposits and landlord power: how many months, and how easily they can end itTaiwan's Housing Rental Market Development and Management Act caps the deposit at two months' rent (Article 7) and lists five grounds on which a landlord may end the lease early (Article 10) — four require thirty days' written notice, reclaiming the unit for reconstruction requires three months'. Mainland China's Housing Rental Regulation (State Council Order No. 812, in force since 15 September 2025) only requires the deposit amount, refund timing and deduction grounds to be written into the contract — it sets no cap at all. Japan's Civil Code Article 622-2 requires a landlord to refund the *shikikin* (security deposit), minus what the tenant owes, once the lease ends and the unit is returned; Japan additionally has *reikin* — "key money" paid to the landlord, usually non-refundable, that no statute requires or limits — and the Land and House Lease Act's Article 28 requires "just cause" before a landlord may refuse renewal or terminate, so a tenant cannot simply be told to leave. The United States has no federal rule at all: HUD's role is limited to anti-discrimination under the Fair Housing Act, and deposit caps are set state by state — California's Civil Code §1950.5, as amended by AB 12 (effective July 2024), cut the limit from two or three months to one. India's Model Tenancy Act, 2021 is only a template for states to adopt — it proposes a two-month cap for residential premises, six for commercial — but most states still run on their own older Rent Control Acts. Indonesia's rental law still traces to the Dutch-era Civil Code (Articles 1548 onward); the deposit amount is left entirely to contract, and a landlord cannot evict a tenant who refuses to leave without going through court. Brazil's Tenancy Law caps the deposit at three months' rent, held in a savings account (Article 38), while Article 46 lets a landlord reclaim the unit without cause once a contract of thirty months or longer expires.
- Weddings and Marriage CustomsThe legal doorway to marriage differs by place. Taiwan requires household-registration entry for the marriage to take effect; Japan forms the marriage when the marriage notification is accepted; Brazil centres civil registration; Indonesia commonly layers religious ceremony and state registration; India offers personal-law routes alongside the Special Marriage Act; mainland China sets the minimum age at 22 for men and 20 for women; and US marriage licences are handled by the states. A ceremony, banquet, and legal registration may happen on different days. This guide separates legal marriage from the wedding celebration before comparing family and local customs.
- Proposals and EngagementsAn engagement is not a marriage. Taiwan sets engagement at 17 and marriage at 18, and a promise to marry cannot be forced; Indonesia sets the minimum marriage age at 19 for both sexes, with lamaran serving first as public family recognition. Mainland Chinese disputes often concern the return of bride price, Japan has no dedicated engagement statute, India is shaped by personal laws, Brazil allows free marriage at 18, and US ring disputes are handled state by state. This guide compares social meaning, family negotiation, consent, and legal weight.
The heat scale is still being calibrated. It shows magnitude, not an exact value.