Germany & Japan
by Micha`
I am a German living in Japan since about 10 years now. In Germany, we call Christmas "das Fest der Liebe" (the festival of love) and it usually is a very silent and peaceful event. The time where children's eyes send out sparks of happiness, and partners in life think of nice presents for each other.
More than once I went out by myself on the 24th of December in the evening, hearing the sound of just fallen snow under my feet, seeing colorful lights in many windows and here and there catching the smell of nice food. Just walking through deserted streets (in Berlin!) then made me remember them times when I was 6, 7 years old, ...my parents did put much effort into "constructing" a real looking visit of Mr. Santa. The tree was decorated on the 24th afternoon, and we (my brother and I) had to leave the room and wait till it was done.
When we were 4, 5 years old, some neighbour even came in a Santa-dress and we did have to learn some poem:
Lieber guter Weihnachtsmann
Dear Mr. Santa
schau mich nicht so boese an
Don't look at me with that angry face
stecke deine Rute ein
Put back your rod (German Santa brings presents and penalty as well *g*)
ich will auch immer artig sein
I promise to be a good kid all the time
Later they (the parents) made us go to our room and wait for a "knock-knock" at the door (which we knew by then was just THEM, making some show for us), and through the door hearing some small talk with "Santa" (*g*) and finally we could come out and see the shining Christmas tree with the present boxes under it, standing there and smelling like a real forest.
Then, when a teenager, the main event was to meet all family members at the 25th and 26th. Grandmas, Aunts and Uncles and their kids, the unforgettable is the food. Roast pork, duck, goose, cheesecake, guglhupf and stollen, it was each year the ONLY time where we did eat that much and that good stuff at once. When a little older, I'd visit the "Weihnachtsmarkt", a bazaar with many festive stands, Gluehwein and muuuuch sweet things.
Well, that's why I went out at the 24th afternoon when getting older (around 24), ...walking slowly through the streets, remembering my happy Christmas feelings at childhood, and watching other peoples houses and imaging/wishing them the great happiness that I experienced.
In Japan now most of that style got lost a little. The percentage of Christians is very small, and I think and the event "Christmas" is much more just a big shopping party.
Here in Tokyo they have "Christmas-parties", wearing funny hats on the head and exploding some "in-house-fireworks". Company's Christmas parties are in expensive hotels, doing noisy games and such things. Germans do play "Sylvester" on the 31st, where we try to scare away the bad ghosts for the next year. So it looks a bit disturbing to my understanding of peace and lovely silence at Christmas to do such noisy things. And, ... Christmas trees in Japan do NOT smell like a forest, unless they are sprayed with some smell spray, they are from plastic and fit in small spaces.
The Japanese way of year changing is also a bit different, on the 31st people go to a near "shrine" and the fast ones can participate in ringing the chime 108 times, besides that, it is all very silent.
Greetings from Tokyo/Japan,
Micha` (Mimo^) from #germany
©Compiled by Curve/Emma curve@dal.net 2002
