It just doesn't quite feel like Christmas time, here halfway around the world. Sure, stores are filled with holiday decorations and red and green signs announcing sales and whatnot, but it's not the same. For one thing, the Christmas season usually marks the end of finals, the end of the semester. I have a full two weeks off school, but the past few have been spent going to class, taking notes, and doing other normal academic tasks. No tests to prepare for or papers to write. I'm looking forward to the vacation to be sure, but not quite the same way as I would coming off of two weeks of and late nights in the library and cramming for everything.
Another thing is the fact that in the United States, Christmas is still largely a religious holiday. More people go to church on Christmas than any other day in the year, except maybe Easter. This is also exemplified by the fact that Christmas is largely a family holiday. People come together from all over to share presents, eat home-cooked food, and argue loudly (and often drunkenly) over stupid things. But in Japan, where the predominant religions are not Christian, this is a different story. Christmas Day is more for friends and significant others than families. My host parents, for example, are going to a friends house on that day to share in the traditional Christmas Cake--which is as far as I can tell the only real tradition the Japanese have for this day. Often boyfriends will take their girlfriends to Disneyland, or some other romantic spot. Families with children will sometimes have Santa Claus come give presents in the middle of the night, but all the children I've talked to seem to know that it's actually their parents leaving things out for them to find. Many business even stay open.
By contrast, New Years Eve is a predominantly family holiday in Japan. According to Japanese religious tradition (though I'm not sure if its Buddhist or Shintoist), the New Year is a time to reflect on family matters, go to the shrine together, and pray for health and happiness for your family. For a full seven days you do everything with your family, including eating all the traditional food and drinking sake together at night. I'm not entirely sure how this all works out, but I'm pretty excited to learn.
Anyway, I suppose between these two things, I don't really feel like I'm missing out on Christmas yet. I'm sure right now at my house, Debbie is screaming at everyone to keep the house clean, my Dad is unintentionally making a mess somewhere, and my brother is sitting up in his room trying to ignore everything. Whereas I'm sitting in my room (which is devoid of Christmas decorations by the way) thinking about the whole Christmas season and wondering when it's actually going to hit me that there will be no Christmas morning with my family, or delicious Christmas dinner, or Christmas fighting over the TV and wondering which Harry Potter movie we should watch. No Heidi hopping around through the wrapping paper, no badminton tournaments, and no watching Joie freak out over his new cat toys. Such a strange feeling....
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