建国記念の日 but 憲法記念日


建国記念 **の** 日 BUT 憲法記念日

In the names of almost all Japanese national holidays we can see の日
（成人の日、春分の日、昭和の日, etc.).

Why is 憲法記念日 different?




記念日 is a common set phrase which refers to "anniversary", or the day when a
certain event actually happened, e.g., 結婚記念日, 終戦記念日, 開港記念日. The promulgation
of the current Constitution happened precisely on May 3, 1947, so it's safe to
call it 憲法記念日.

However, most Japanese national holidays are not associated with actual
historical events or events whose date can be reliably determined. 建国記念の日
(February 11) is usually translated as "National Foundation Day", but this
date is not reliable because it is based on the ancient Japanese mythology and
lot of calculations. The situation is different from American 独立記念日 (precisely
July 4, 1776).

～の日 and ～記念 **の** 日 are naming conventions that allow people to establish a
"memorial/celebration day" with an arbitrary date by avoiding the nuance of
"n-th anniversary". To take another example, 成人の日 ("Coming of Age Day", second
Monday of January) is associated with no particular historical event. It is
not called 成人記念日 because 成人記念日 would sound like someone's birthday. Another
example is [ポッキーの日](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pocky_%26_Pretz_Day) which
was determined merely because the appearance of the number `1111` resembles
four pieces of Pocky.




記念日 is a common set phrase which refers to "anniversary", or the day when a
certain event actually happened, e.g., 結婚記念日, 終戦記念日, 開港記念日. The promulgation
of the current Constitution happened precisely on May 3, 1947, so it's safe to
call it 憲法記念日.

However, most Japanese national holidays are not associated with actual
historical events or events whose date can be reliably determined. 建国記念の日
(February 11) is usually translated as "National Foundation Day", but this
date is not reliable because it is based on the ancient Japanese mythology and
lot of calculations. The situation is different from American 独立記念日 (precisely
July 4, 1776).

～の日 and ～記念 **の** 日 are naming conventions that allow people to establish a
"memorial/celebration day" with an arbitrary date by avoiding the nuance of
"n-th anniversary". To take another example, 成人の日 ("Coming of Age Day", second
Monday of January) is associated with no particular historical event. It is
not called 成人記念日 because 成人記念日 would sound like someone's birthday. Another
example is [ポッキーの日](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pocky_%26_Pretz_Day) which
was determined merely because the appearance of the number `1111` resembles
four pieces of Pocky.

