Japan is a land of linguistic vagaries. Take the kanji character 食, which means “eat.” Ordinarily, it’s pronounced “tabe,” but it can also be pronounced “ku,” depending on which phonetic characters follow it. Oh, unless it’s followed or preceded by a non-phonetic character, in which case it’s pronounced “shoku.”

You know what else Japan is a land of? Unabashed fetishes.

These two characteristics combine on November 28, Knee-High Socks Day.

So what sort of linguistic gymnastics led to November 28’s designation as the best day to appreciate a strip of exposed thigh? First, we have to rewrite the date as “11-28”. Next, we break the numbers up into their original digits, giving us 1-1-2-8.

Ordinarily, 1 is read as “ichi” in Japanese, but an alternate reading is just “i.” Double this up and you get “ii,” which means “good.”

The number 2 keeps its standard pronunciation of “ni.” 8 is usually read as “hachi.” However, just like the knee-high socks that are most highly regarded by their connoisseurs coming so close to concealing the entire leg, “hachi” is so close to “hai” that those who thought up the observance of Knee-High Day decided to just go ahead and make the switch.

▼ Apparently “close enough” is acceptable in horse shoes, hand grenades, and excuses to gaze at/show off the female form.

Put it all together, and you’ve got “ii ni hai,” a mishmash of Japanese and English that comes out sounding like “good knee-high (socks).”

And now that we’ve taken a closer look at the origins of Knee-High Day, it’s time for a closer look at the fashion it celebrates. Please be aware that some of the following images might be less than appropriate for browsing at the workplace, but then that all depends where you work – this is everyday fare in the RocketNews24 office.

Also, since this year Knee-High Day coincides with Thanksgiving in America, you might want to wait until your relatives are enjoying a post-turkey nap before you yourself enjoy this collection of knee-high photos. There’s only one thing we could imagine being more embarrassing than Grandma being shocked by the pictures below, which is Grandma being inspired by them.

It’s good to have good knee-high socks day!

Source: Jin

Top image: Twitter

Insert images: Twitter (1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7)