The Festive Season in Japan

  Apart from a few lights and decorations in the shops, Christmas is not really celebrated here. Increasingly young couples are increasingly adopting the habit of making it a special day similar to Valentine's Day but for most people Christmas day is a normal working day. Consequently, when we spent Christmas 2004 with my parents in Japan, my father was stunned to see his house transformed into a grotto of wrapping paper and toys on Christmas morning. In fact, it took him my surprise so much that I think he suspects that Father Christmas does exist after all...

  What surprised my British husband was that by Boxing day, the Christmas tree and cards had disappeared and Christmas had effectively finished. This is not uncommon in Japan because we are very keen to prepare for the main celebration - New Year's Day. This is effectively the Japanese equivalent of Christmas with the following similarities and differences:

  There is no real countdown or party atmosphere on New Year's Eve - in my case my brother-in-law's family stays with us but we are usually all in bed by 11:00! This is just as well though, because we have to be up early on New Year's Day to toast each other with sake, following which my nephew joins the rest of his school baseball team, in uniform, at the shrine for their annual blessing.

The rest of the day is a day of rest as it is believed that what you do on New Year's Day will dictate what you do for the rest of the year. For example, our car had a puncture on New Year's Day but we couldn't fix it that day because it would have meant a year of hard work and no fun. My husband was surprised when he was forced to take it easy! I believe this is where there are similarities between Western Christmas and Japanese New Year; despite the cultures being so diverse, we all enjoy the tradition of relaxing round the television after a big family lunch.