あけましておめでとうございます (Japanese)
Here's an interesting cultural holiday switcheroo... in Japan, New Year's Eve is the time for families to visit the temple to ring bells at midnight in order to dispel the evils of the past year.
Since Japan is traditionally not a Christian country, Christmas is a commercial holiday of gift giving. For single folks, it has become the equivalent of Valentine's Day and all the best hotels and restaurants are booked months in advance.
In Japan, everyone sends Happy New Year cards at the end of the year. Here is yours... it's the year of the Boar...
It sounds like the New Year in Japan is also steeped in religious belief and tradition making it similar in importance to our Christmas. The US holidays are reversed from those of other countries. I've only superficially read about the Hmong New Year, but it's definitely a bigger deal than Christmas is for us . . . a multi-day time of matchmaking, family gathering, celebration, etc. EVERYONE goes. It's fascinating to see the other traditions and find the root similarities and differences.
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"...Christmas is a commercial holiday of gift giving."
Often it seems nothing but the same here....
I was in China on a business trip (in a former corporate life) during Chinese New Years. It was *huge*. Beijing basically shut down for a week for the celebrations.
Happy Year of the Boar to all!
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New Years Eve in Japan brings back memories. I spent the 1990-91 New Year week in Tokyo. At the time I was a cadet at the United States Military Acedemy - I headed over with seven of my buddies courtesy of a Japanese television station (long story) to appear on a game show. We did a skit and formed a human onigiri rice cake and chanted some things in Japanese that we had to memorize but didn't understand and generally looked riddiculous - but got a great free trip out of it.
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I can imagine Chris... Japanese TV loves to do that ----. I was living in Tokyo during that time... memorable.
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Keep up the great blog Pat! Cheers to 2007!
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