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I believe that the tittle already covers my question, but I will explain it
better here.

When I was reading the Heisig book (Remembering the Kanji, the sixth edition I
believe) I came across the kanji 旦, which Heisig defines as **Nightbreak**. I
looked at <http://www.edrdg.org/cgi-bin/wwwjdic/wwwjdic?1MMJ%E6%97%A6> and
found the following definition:

> daybreak; dawn; morning

Which lead me thing that 旦 means the _start of the day_ and NOT the _start of
the night_ , as the key-word and the story Heisig provides leads me to think.

But the story also talks about a more cultural aspect... I will quote the
story from the book here:

> While we normally refer to the start of the day as "daybreak," Japanese
> commonly refers to it as the "opening up of night" into day. Hence the
> choice of this rather odd key work, nightbreak. The single stroke at the
> bottom represents the floor (have a peek again at frame 1) or the horizon
> over which the sun is poking its head.

I know that are two different languages, but I think it it worth mentioning: I
also have access to another book from Heisig, the Remembering the Simplified
Hanzi ( _Chinese_ ) and there the Hanzi has the meaning of **daybreak** ;
making me think that he really wants to give the _kanji_ #30 the meaning of
_nightbreak_.

I am super confused about this Kanji now. **Can someone explain to me what is
happening here regarding the meaning of the kanji and possibly give me an
explanation about why Heisig chose this key word?**
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kanji culture
Heisig story #30 (Nightbreak) 旦, shouldn't it mean "daybreak" instead?
I haven't read that book, but [旦 means
_morning_](http://dictionary.goo.ne.jp/leaf/jn2/139534/m0u/), not _evening_.

I think this "opening up of night" refers to the Japanese word 夜【よ】明【あ】け
("morning, dawn", where 夜=night, 明=open), but I don't know why _nightbreak_
suddenly came in.

This kanji is rarely used except in the compound 元旦【がんたん】 ("the morning of New
Year's Day") or in several ateji compounds such as 旦那【だんな】. I think only a few
native speakers can explain the original meaning of 旦 with confidence.

元旦 itself has been commonly misunderstood, and some recent dictionaries admit
that 元旦 can simply mean "New Year's Day" instead of "New Year's morning".
Strictly speaking, "元旦の夜" is wrong ("the night of the morning??"), but many
people use it without caring the meaning of 旦. [NHK carefully avoids such an
expression.](http://www.nhk.or.jp/bunken/summary/kotoba/gimon/210.html)
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It makes sense if you change the context a little ---> night break, i.e the
night takes a break, and it become day again.
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