季節の挨拶: Seasonal Set Phrases

In English, remarking on the weather is a way of saying nothing — polite noise to fill a silence. In Japanese, noticing the season aloud is a genuine social move: it signals shared attunement (季節感, kisetsu-kan, "a feel for the seasons"), and it opens conversations, phone calls, and letters. Much of this vocabulary is fixed formula — you do not compose it, you deploy the right phrase for the right week of the year. This page walks the calendar: New Year, high summer, and the everyday weather openers that carry the same instinct year-round.

The everyday seasonal opener

Before the fixed formulas, the workhorse: a casual observation that the season has turned, offered as small talk and expecting agreement (hence the ね). This is the spoken, conversational layer, usable with anyone.

The grammar is simple — an adjective + なる ("become") + ね — but the social function is what matters. Skipping this and launching straight into your business can read as brusque. Notice the season first, agree on it together, then proceed. The 〜てくる in 暖かくなってきました ("has been getting warm, coming toward now") is especially common because it frames the change as an ongoing shared experience.

New Year — the densest cluster in the calendar

No moment in the Japanese year is more formula-bound than the New Year (お正月). There is a phrase for before the turn and a different phrase for after it — and mixing them up is a real error.

Before midnight on December 31, you wish someone a good remainder of the old year. This is よいお年を (short for よいお年をお迎えください, "may you welcome a good new year"). You say it at your last meeting of the year — never after January 1.

From January 1, the phrase flips to the greeting everyone knows: あけましておめでとうございます ("the year has opened — congratulations"), usually followed by 今年もよろしくお願いします, a request to "please keep up our good relationship this year too."

One honest complication: if the recipient is in mourning (喪中, mochū), the celebratory おめでとう is inappropriate — you do not congratulate a bereaved household on the New Year. People in mourning send a 喪中はがき in late autumn to say they will skip New Year cards, and others then reply in mid-winter with a 寒中見舞い (below) instead of a 年賀状. This is not a nicety you can improvise around; it is a rule.

High summer — 暑中お見舞い and its narrow window

Summer has its own greeting, most familiar from the 暑中見舞い postcard sent to check on friends and clients during the hottest weeks. The full written formula is 暑中お見舞い申し上げます ("I send my sympathies in the heat"). The trap is the window: it is only valid in true midsummer.

The dates are fixed by the old calendar: 暑中見舞い runs from roughly the end of the rainy season (or 小暑, around July 7) until 立秋, the calendrical start of autumn on about August 7–8. The moment 立秋 passes, the very same message must switch its opening word to 残暑 ("lingering heat"), because on the calendar it is now technically autumn even though it is still sweltering.

The winter counterpart, 寒中お見舞い ("greetings in the cold"), fills the gap after the New Year season ends (松の内, about January 7) up to 立春 (about February 4). It is also the correct card to send a household in mourning, and the correct way to reply if someone's New Year card reaches you late.

Why the season is common ground

Step back and notice what all of this assumes: that the passing of the seasons is a shared experience worth naming together. The everyday すっかり秋らしくなりましたね and the formal 暑中お見舞い申し上げます are the casual and ceremonial ends of a single reflex — 季節感, the sense that being attuned to the season is part of being a considerate person. This is why a Japanese letter opens with the weather (see letter set phrases) and why a phone call to an acquaintance often begins with a line about the cold or the cherry blossoms. It is not stalling. It is establishing that you and the other person inhabit the same turning year — a small act of connection that English, which treats weather as the emptiest of small talk, has no real equivalent for. For how the seasons map onto register and culture more broadly, see seasons and cultural registers.

Common mistakes

Mistake 1 — Starting cold, with no seasonal opener. English speakers dive straight into the point. In a call or letter to anyone but a close friend, skipping the season reads as abrupt.

Mistake 2 — 暑中お見舞い outside its window. Sending it in June (before the heat) or after 立秋 (when it must become 残暑見舞い) is a genuine calendar error, not a stylistic one.

Mistake 3 — Saying あけましておめでとう before New Year. The greeting only works once the year has actually opened. Before January 1, it is よいお年を.

Mistake 4 — Wishing おめでとう to a household in mourning. Congratulations are inappropriate for a bereaved family at New Year; use 寒中見舞い instead.

Key takeaways

• Noticing the season aloud is a social reflex (季節感), not filler — open conversations and letters with it, and expect agreement (…ね).
• New Year hinges on Jan 1: before it, よいお年を(お迎えください); from it, あけましておめでとうございます + 今年もよろしくお願いします.
• 暑中お見舞い is valid only ~July 7 to 立秋 (Aug 7–8); after that it becomes 残暑お見舞い; the winter version is 寒中お見舞い (~Jan 7 to 立春).
• These formulas are fixed — deploy the right one for the week, don't compose freely.
• The reflex behind all of it: seasons are shared common ground to be jointly noticed — the cultural instinct that also drives the seasonal openers in formal letters.