Origami Day
Next: November 11, 2026
Fold a wish into a square.
The story
Where it comes from
Origami Day was set for 11 November in 1980 by the Nippon Origami Association in Japan. The date was chosen for its four 1s, which stand for the four equal sides of a square sheet of origami paper. The association also chose it because 11 November is the anniversary of the 1918 Armistice, and origami's wish for peace belongs on that day. The word itself joins the Japanese oru, 'to fold', and kami, 'paper'.
How it's celebrated
In Tokyo, the Nippon Origami Association holds an 'Origami Carnival' around the date at Tokyo Skytree Town, with an exhibition of works folded by its members. Elsewhere, Origami Day closes World Origami Days, which OrigamiUSA runs from 24 October, the birthday of the folder Lillian Oppenheimer. Its suggestions are simple: teach a class, fold on the bus, or give a friend something you folded.
Did you know
- Paper cranes became a symbol of peace through Sadako Sasaki, a Hiroshima girl who folded cranes while ill with leukaemia; about ten million cranes are now offered each year at the city's Children's Peace Monument.
- Akira Yoshizawa (1911–2005), the Japanese master considered the greatest folder of his time, invented wet folding, which dampens the paper so it holds soft curves.
- Because origami diagrams share a code of dashed lines and arrows, a model can be learned from a book written in a language you cannot read.
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