Christmas Around the World: Christmas (and New Year) in Japan

In Japan, Christmas is a legal Holiday, not a national Holiday, and it is not treated as such, other than that many schools will be closed that day.  In Japan, the actual big national Holiday in Japan is none other than New Year's Day.  The New Year is so big in Japan, that the celebration of it will continue well into January.

Also, while Christmas is associated with pretty much everybody in the United States, Christmas has only two associations in Japan: Children and couples.

The emphasis on couples is particularly strange to Americans, and the Japanese dating habits are even stranger: A highly successful KFC promotion in the 1970s has made it a mainstay in Japanese Christmas dinner, and because KFCs aren't always much bigger in Japan than they are here, they can get really crowded really quickly.  Thus, couples will book out KFCs long before it's time for the Holidays.

As for the children, because it's just a legal Holiday and not a national Holiday, what happens is that children just go to the houses of other children for little parties, with strawberry flavored Christmas Cakes, often decorated with plastic Santas, though also sometimes associated with the Holiday is Hoteisho, a Buddha associated with generosity.

The music most associated with Japanese Christmas is Beethoven's Ode to Joy, which was allegedly first sung in Japan by Germany prisoners during WWI:

However, for good measure, I'm going to share a song by Utada Hikaru, who performed a favorite song of mine, Hikari.  Now you get to hear her sing "Can't Wait 'Till Christmas":

It is often treated as a kind of prelude to the New Year, which is more like a Western Christmas in Japan, as this is the day when families get together and send out special greeting cards.

For the New Year, Japanese have a selection of various dishes combined together, the combination called "osechi-ryori", or "osechi" for short.  It consists of things like daidai, bitter oranges that symbolize wishes for children in the New Year, Datemaki, sweet omlettes which symbolize a wish for auspicious days, Kamaboko, a fried fish cake that symbolizes the rising sun, and Kanzunoko, a herring roe that symbolizes a wish for many children for the New Year.  Mochi is also a popular snack for the Japanese New Year.

Around December 31, the Buddhist temples will ring their bells around 108 times, to represent the 108 human sins of this Earth, in a kind of cleansing ritual.

There is no time busier for a postman in Japan than the transition from December to January, because this is when the postcards are sent to everybody, just like Christmas season in the United States.  Some of the things mailed include money, because of a custom called Otoshidama.

Now you know how to celebrate Christmas like the Japanise do!