Sports Day in Japan is a national holiday held annually on the second Monday in October, and it was formerly known as Health and Sports Day). It commemorates the opening of the 1964 Summer Olympics held in Tokyo and aims to promote sports and an active lifestyle). Most communities and schools across Japan celebrate Sports Day with a sports festival, which is similar to a mini Olympics). These festivals include many traditional track and field events, such as 4 × 100 m relay, 100m sprinting, and long jump, as well as many other events like ball toss, tug of war, rugby-ball dribbling races, sack races, and so on). During Sports Day, a large festival occurs where Japanese people are split into various groups by neighborhood, area, or school. Then, they are led through a large parade with a performance by the local marching band. Next, the national anthem is performed, and the Japanese flag is raised before the sports portion of the event occurs. Children start practicing for sports day as early as one month before the day, and many schools split the students into several groups to compete for points in team sports and games. The day is used by many schools and businesses to hold their annual Field Day, which typically consists of a range of physical events ranging from more traditional track-and-field events such as relay races to more uncommon events such as the tug of war and the ‘Cavalry Battle’.