From 0.7% Christian Japan, "MERRY CHRISTMAS" To All (It Is Said & Seen EVERYWHERE Here)

AmericanInTokyo ^ | 3 December 2009 | AmericanInTokyo

[Candor7]

Not urban myth. It actually happened. Maybe his story started it all. His name is Ira, and he is a writer and now an English professor at SUNY.

Here in America we use Buddhist's shrine statues as paper weights, and shinto wands as dusters. Who knew?

Sacrilege is a very relative thing.The Japanese have a sort of pristine innocence about religion in general, and few talk much about it , as you know.So putting the wrong figure on a cross is not that far out. It has probably happened more than once.

I sort of like the story.When cultures mix, funny things can happen, and one has to have a sense of humor about those situations.

[Nachoman]

My experience with the Japanese is that they are courteous and polite to a fault; unless you’re at war with them. Then their manners go right out the window.

[SnuffaBolshevik]

Thanks, AIT.

I always enjoy your posts, but this one is the best.

Merry Christmas!

[SilvieWaldorfMD]

I totally enjoy your posts from Japan, especially during Christmastime...

[Clemenza]

Better than 90% Christian Spain, where you increasingly see “Feliz Fiestas” in the town plazas.

[Nervous Tick]

I will never forget the Christmas display I encountered in one of the stores in the Shin-Yokohama train station mall. A beautiful Christmas tree, and a speaker playing electronic-timbre Christmas carols at as loud a volume as they could get away with and not violate Japanese decorum.

I didn’t expect it, and it made me a little homesick, even though I was only over there for about a week.

The mall display was one of those schmaltzy commercial things; OTOH, 5 out of 7 of the upper management of our Japanese subsidiary were Christians — guess they were part of that 0.7%.

I love Japan. Used to go there quite often. Thanks for the post.

FRegards

[Question_Assumptions]

While it’s true that there are a lot of Christmas decorations in Japan this time of year, most of it lacks any religious connection (no Nativity scenes that I can remember) and that left it feeling a little hollow and soulless for me when I lived there. On the other hand, Colonel Sanders at KFC does look pretty good decked out for Christmas.

[MacMattico]

I was in China (Fujian Province and Guanghou) in March 2002 and they still hadn't taken all of their Christmas decorations down yet!

[SevenofNine]

Japan? of all places?

OH MAN that soo coollll AIT

[netmilsmom]

Thank you so much for sharing this!!!!

I want to be where they say “Merry Christmas” order some Pizza-La and go to the Ghibli Museum.

Want to switch with me this year?
My in-laws aren’t THAT bad (she says snickering while turning away)

[AGreatPer]

"Mostly it is eating a lot around the home"

What are the traditional foods eaten around the holidays?
I actually saw on tv live fish in a tank being sold in one of their WalMarts.

[gogogodzilla]

Don’t forget the traditional chicken dinner from KFC, ya know!

:-P

[EDINVA]

Yes they were vicious in WWII. I know some older folks who served in the Pacific Theatre who would never be able to say a kind word about the Japanese, or even a single Japanese.

My experience is limited to my daughter’s experience there, and it was just amazing. The day she left her little village, literally half the population came out to the train station to see her off .. with gifts, tears, etc. And that train was at the crack of dawn! Hell, I wouldn’t get up to see my daughter off at the crack of dawn .. I’d tell her to call a cab and let me know when she arrived where she was going ;)

[jch10]

AIT, thanks for this refreshing post. I didn’t have a clue about Japanese customs regarding Christmas.

Merry Christmas to you.
Merry Christmas, Japan.

[El Cid]

Merry Christmas!

Thanks for sharing the pictures and stories...

[alfa6]

Thanks for the ping AiT and a Happy Holidays to you, snicker, snicker:-)

MERRY CHRISTMAS

From Kansas no less

Best Regards

alfa6 ;>}

[AmericanInTokyo]

THAILAND!!??

[AmericanInTokyo]

It is called "osechi ryori" and it actually looks and tastes something like this. Each piece of New Years Day food has a specific meaning, of they are plays on words, i.e. the Japanese word for the food is also a word for some element of "good luck". Some of these elements of meals take 2 or 3 hours to prepare with a lot of love. They start January 1st this way in most homes. Not to mention hitting the Gekkeikan sake bottle pretty heavily.

[AmericanInTokyo]

thank you for your reply

[tsomer]

there are a lot of Christmas decorations in Japan this time of year, most of it lacks any religious connection (no Nativity scenes that I can remember)...

It's probably a commercial celebration.

Look on the box of Christmas decorations you purchased lately--it reads "Made in China." In the fifties and sixties, the box would have read "Made in Japan."

I don't think it's bad. Christmas was originally a pagan holiday, corresponding to winter's shortest day (forget what it's called.) It also had a psychological component, light in darkness, gorging in anticipation of the long winter, evergreen trees to recall spring. It was also associated with the Persian cult of Mithras, celebrated on December 25. There were many converts in Rome, especially in the legions.

I think the Catholic church adopted the day and assigned a Christian character. Protestants, especially the Puritans did not approve. Was it Cromwell or the New England Puritans who outlawed it.

The essential Christian celebration is Easter, though that has pagan precursors as well.