Continuing with the festive spirit adopted by Japanese
Internet users this month, November 28 has been designated as “High Socks Day
(Ii Niihai no Hi)” that elegantly extend above the knees. This annual
celebration has been a tradition since approximately 2013, capturing the
enthusiasm of the community.Knee High (ニーハイ)“, a day in which artists and the community come
together to celebrate the beloved garment “
In Japan, numerous unofficial but widely recognized
commemorative days are established by companies, organizations, industry groups
or individuals as part of promotional or awareness campaigns. Many of
these days are coined ingeniously using puns on date numbers, a practice
facilitated by the nature of the Japanese language, where kanji characters that
include numbers often have multiple pronunciations.
November, in particular, becomes a focal point for
these punning anniversary days, as the number “11” can be read as “i(1)i(1),”
meaning “ good,” “pleasant,” or “happy.” Similarly, November 28 is designated
as “High Sock Day” because the numbers can be read as “1[I] + 1[I] + 2[Nī] +
8[Ha(i)],” which means “Good High Socks.”
Meanwhile, the appearance of this anniversary day did
not occur until the late 2000s, as it inherited the famous concept of
“Zettai Ryouiki,” or fetish for bare skin in the space between over-the-knee
socks and a miniskirt, which became established in otaku culture in the
first half of the 2000s. Finally, a variety of illustrations They can be found
through the hashtag #いいニーハイの日.
Sauce: Twitter
