✦ zenith calendar · the shinto almanac
the rites of the shrines and the seasonal sekku in one quiet layer of your sky, each one explained in its own tradition's words.
shinto is one of the holiday almanacs that come with zenith calendar. it holds the shrine year: the regular rites shrines across japan keep, with the rites of ise jingū and the seasonal sekku.
the days kept on a fixed date repeat every year, and setsubun and the equinox rites move with the sun, dated as they are announced. nothing is worked out on your phone. tap a day and read three short paragraphs: what it is, where it comes from, and how it is kept.
western calendar · fixed rites, with setsubun and the equinox rites by the sun
15 november
the day children of three, five and seven are brought to the shrine in their best clothes to give thanks for their growth and pray for their health.
families visit the shrine in kimono or formal clothes and receive a blessing from the priest. children are given chitose-ame, long red and white "thousand-year candy", for a long life; most come on the days off near the 15th.
the rite of the first morning
1 january
the rite of the first morning of the year, kept at shrines across japan, when priests pray that the new year be peaceful and good.
in these first days people make hatsumōde, the first shrine visit of the year, and take home a new ofuda for the kamidana, the home altar. at home the new year is met with osechi foods and otoso, spiced sake drunk for long life.
the division of the seasons
the eve of risshun, the first day of spring, around 3 february as the sun sets it
a day to drive out misfortune and welcome good fortune as the new season begins.
shrines hold setsubunsai, many with mamemaki, throwing roasted beans. at home people scatter beans calling "oni wa soto, fuku wa uchi", demons out, fortune in, and eat as many beans as their years.
the summer great purification
30 june
the purification that closes the first half of the year, cleansing the impurity and wrongs gathered over the past six months.
priests read the words of the great purification, and people give the shrine a hitogata, a paper figure, to carry their impurity away. at many shrines people pass through a great ring of grass in a figure of eight, praying for health through the summer.
zenith calendar draws the year as an orbit round the sun. lit, shinto puts its days on their dates on that ring, in pale gold. its mark is ⛩︎, the torii.
each day carries three short paragraphs in its notes: what it is, where it comes from as its own tradition tells it, and how it is kept.
shinto arrives locked, so nothing in it changes by accident. the lock guards your hand, not your eye: you can still read it, shine it or eclipse it. one tap unlocks it, and then it is yours to rename, recolour or add to.
tap its chip in the legend to eclipse it (kept, but not drawn) and tap again to bring it back. nothing is deleted either way.
shinto shares one sky with your own commitments. like every almanac that comes with the app, it never counts toward the almanacs you can make for free, and it lives on your phone: zenith calendar has no server of its own.
✦ zenith calendar · the sky around it
shinto is a single layer. beneath it is a whole calendar drawn as the sky, your year an orbit round the sun, and every part of it answers your touch.
the sun stands at the centre and the year rings round it, with today's earth riding at today's place, its small moon beside it. tap the ring anywhere else and a faint ghost earth waits on that day.
drag along the ring and the days pass under your finger, the big date and the day's list following as you go. lift, and the day you stopped on stays picked.
tap the small moon beside today's earth and you dive into the week. the moon above shows its phase, named underneath; swipe the dates and each week brings its own.
tap the sun and the ring tips on its edge into a ladder of years. in the week, pull the moon firmly down and the month opens, the moon resting half off its foot.
zenith calendar has no server of its own. tap the gear and switch on "nothing comes in" or "nothing leaves this phone"; lift them, and every almanac is back exactly as it was.
shinto is waiting in the app, and the rest of the sky comes with it.
shinto ·
Shichi-go-san is kept on 15 November every year, so in 2026 it falls on a Sunday. Most families visit the shrine on the days off near the 15th.
Setsubun falls on 3 February 2027, the eve of risshun, the first day of spring in the old seasonal calendar. In Zenith Calendar it sits on the ring of your year in the shinto almanac.
Nagoshi no harae is the summer great purification on 30 June, closing the first half of the year. At many shrines people pass through a great ring of grass, praying for health through the summer.
Saitansai is the rite of the first morning of the year, kept at shrines across Japan on New Year's Day. In these first days people make hatsumōde, their first shrine visit of the year.
Zenith Calendar for Android comes with an almanac called shinto: the shrine year, drawn on the ring of your year beside your own days. Turning it on costs nothing.
Shinto holds the shrine year, japan holds Japan's national holidays, and buddhist (japan) holds the days Japanese Buddhist temples keep. They are separate almanacs, so you light the ones you keep.