Oh wow, it’s Hanakin!!

Posted on October 4, 2013 Updated on October 4, 2013

No relation to the Skywalkers.

「花金」 or Hanakin is the Japanese way of saying “THANK GOD IT’S FRIDAY!”

Interesting story on this one. If you are one of the few who can read kanji (oh, which I’m sure you are!) you’ll notice that it’s spelled using the characters of ‘flower’ and ‘gold’. Now why would ‘Flower Gold’ translate into TGIF? I had no idea either, so I researched a bit.

So first, why ‘gold’?

In Japanese, Friday translates to 金曜日 or the ‘Gold Day’. A teacher told me it was because payday usually falls on a Friday. So that would make Hanakin into ‘Flower Friday’ which still doesn’t make sense.

Okay, what do you associate the word ‘flower’ with? Plant. Colors. Petals. Bright… PRETTY. So is it ‘Pretty Friday’? Nope, but we’re getting there.

We all know what happens during Friday nights. It might not be the same everywhere, but generally that’s the time of the week everyone puts on their most revealing clothes and pretend they’re a popular socialite. Generally.

And so, if you look it up and combed through pages upon pages of Google results, you’d find the literal translation, ‘Flowery Friday’. A day where people pretty themselves up and celebrate the end of a workweek.

I felt accomplished when I finally pieced together all these connections and delved into the real meaning of an age-old Japanese expression. But then a teacher smiled and said, “Oh, but do you know Hanamoku?”

Huh, 「花木」? Flower Thursday? Now what the heck’s that?