Japanese Christmas

Ja­pa­ne­se Christ­mas is comp­le­te­ly dif­fe­rent from Fin­nish one.

The­re are al­most no Chris­ti­ans in Ja­pan. Only one per­cent of the pe­op­le li­ving in Ja­pan are Chris­ti­an. That is why our Ja­pa­ne­se Christ­mas is a litt­le bit stran­ge.

First, we have to go to school/work on 24th and 25th of De­cem­ber if tho­se are not Sa­tur­day or Sun­day, but the 23rd of De­cem­ber is a ho­li­day be­cau­se it is a birth­day of the re­cent Ja­pa­ne­se em­pe­ror.

Se­cond­ly, we spend tho­se Christ­mas days not with our fa­mi­lies, but with our own lo­vers and friends. We think the 24th is more im­por­tant than 25th. One of the re­a­sons for this is that a song ”Christ­mas Eve” sung by a Ja­pa­ne­se sin­ger used to be very po­pu­lar and made us feel like the 24th must be the most be­au­ti­ful day for us. Pe­op­le who don’t have lo­vers du­ring the Christ­mas are cal­led ”Chri(stmas) bocc­hi”, which me­ans pe­op­le who spend Christ­mas alo­ne. Some girls try to get boyf­riends just for Christ­mas and they usu­al­ly bre­ak up with the boys af­ter it. In my opi­ni­on, girls are stron­ger than boys in Ja­pan.

Third­ly, we can­not get more than one pre­sent from San­ta Claus. We have to con­si­der our pre­sent from him ca­re­ful­ly. Then about him, I re­a­li­ze that the­re is no real San­ta Claus be­cau­se San­ta in Ja­pan has an Asi­an face. So it would be nice if some Fin­nish old men could come to Ja­pan and give dre­ams to Ja­pa­ne­se child­ren as San­ta Claus.

Anot­her thing, eve­ry Ja­pa­ne­se fa­mi­ly sha­res a straw­ber­ry short­ca­ke and a big chic­ken on 24th. I do not know why, but this is the Ja­pa­ne­se Christ­mas.

Fu­mi­ka Mu­raya­ma