Homecoming and Reunion
How the world celebratesHomecoming 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.
Quick answers
| Place | When is it? | How the date is set |
|---|---|---|
| United States | Date to be confirmed | Everyday topic |
| Indonesia | March 9, 2027 – March 10, 2027Estimated date | Around the 1st day of the month of Shawwal in the Islamic calendar |
| Japan | August 13, 2027 – August 16, 2027Local dates may differ | 08-13 to 08-16 in most regions; local dates may vary |
| Brazil | Date to be confirmed | Everyday topic |
| China | Date to be confirmed | Everyday topic |
| India | Date to be confirmed | Everyday topic |
| Taiwan | Date to be confirmed | Everyday topic |
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How the world celebrates
- March 9, 2027– March 10, 2027Local dateEstimated date
How does Indonesia mark Homecoming and Reunion?Mudik / Idul Fitri
Mudik around Idul Fitri is one of Indonesia's major homecoming movements, alongside family visits and asking forgiveness. Not everyone can afford the journey or wants to make it.
- August 13, 2027– August 16, 2027Local dateLocal dates may differ
How does Japan mark Homecoming and Reunion?お盆
Obon is often a time to return home, welcome ancestors, and see them off. Bon odori and local events matter too, while dates and travel patterns differ by region. The Obon homecoming can happen all at once because most firms place their closure in the same week; it is not a statutory holiday, yet it stops the country together more completely than many statutory ones do.
- Date to be confirmedLocal date
How does Brazil mark Homecoming and Reunion?
Brazil's homecoming peak is at the end of the year: the school year closes in December, Christmas and New Year run together, and the southern-hemisphere summer sits on top, producing the longest stretch of leaving the city in the year. The road carries most of it, with the long-distance bus network the only option many have for reaching the interior and the Northeast, and airfares rising most steeply in December. The June festivals drive another wave towards the Northeast, and that one runs the opposite way from the year-end movement — it is not going home so much as going to the festival.
- Date to be confirmedLocal date
How does China mark Homecoming and Reunion?
China's chunyun is the largest annual movement of people in the world: centred on the Spring Festival, spanning about forty days, with combined passenger trips across rail, road, water and air counted in the billions. The Spring Festival has four days off under the national holiday regulation, and shifted workdays are then used to build something longer. The difficulty of getting home is the ticket — snapping up tickets, extra services being added and staggering travel are the fixed vocabulary of this period.
- Date to be confirmedLocal date
How does India mark Homecoming and Reunion?
India has no single homecoming peak; the waves are spread across the year by each state's festivals — Diwali, Pongal, Onam, Durga Puja and Chhath each drive one. Rail carries most of it, with long-distance trains booked out a month or two before a festival and special services routinely added. Because the city of work and the home region are often in different states, the journey commonly starts at thirty hours; within one company, different employees' peak return periods can fall in different months.
- Date to be confirmedLocal date
How does Taiwan mark Homecoming and Reunion?
In Taiwan the homecoming pressure sits mainly on Lunar New Year: the eve and the Spring Festival are holidays under the Act on Commemorative Days and Holidays and in practice merge with the weekend into one long break, with highway and rail traffic hitting their annual peak in those days. Mid-Autumn and Duanwu each bring a smaller wave. The difficulty of going home is often not distance but time — the congestion at each end of the long weekend turns 'going home' into a whole day's work.
- Date to be confirmedLocal date
How does United States mark Homecoming and Reunion?
The largest homecoming wave in the United States is Thanksgiving: a federal holiday on the fourth Thursday of November, plus the day before and the weekend, making four days. Its main carriers are the highway and the airline, with airport crowds on the eve and on the Sunday among the heaviest days of the year. The stretch between Christmas and New Year is the second wave. Because the country is large and families are spread out, 'going home' in the United States frequently means a long trip booked months ahead.
Sources and dates
Dates follow local time zones, calendars, and official notices. Check the source when a date is estimated or locally variable.