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Meaning

the festive and the everyday

Hare (晴) is the out-of-the-ordinary: festivals, annual observances, and ceremonial occasions such as weddings and funerals. Ke (褻) is ordinary everyday life.

Example

祭りや正月はハレ、それ以外の普段の暮らしはケにあたる。

Festivals and New Year are hare, and the rest of ordinary life is ke.

Origin

Yanagita Kunio popularized the pair as a concept in folklore studies, but the words themselves are old and appear in the 1603 Nippo Jisho. The hare in haregi (one's best clothes) and harebutai (a grand occasion, a time in the spotlight) is this hare. Since the 1970s the pair has sometimes been discussed together with kegare, understood as the state in which the energy of ke has run dry.

Sources