Like every year, after Halloween, the cities begin to breathe the Christmas air. The shop windows are decorated with gnomes, Christmas trees, reindeer…, the streets are decorated with traditional lights which will soon be turned on and on the radio we begin to hear the songs of singers who are only heard during the Christmas period such as Michael Bublè or Mariah Carey!
Even in Japan, shops begin to display Christmas merchandise at least two months in advance and decorate their windows in Western style with Santa Clauses, snowmen, angels, little trees, with the limited edition of Pikachu or Hello Kitty in the Christmas version. Well yes, even Christmas, like other Western events, has rightfully entered the Japanese holidays with the name of Kurisumasu.
Obviously in the Land of the Rising Sun, Christmas is not a religious holiday and does not have the same value as in the West, but the atmosphere that the lights and decorations create is still magical.
Christmas Eve is considered a sort of Valentine’s Day, couples in love or families with children exchange gifts and go out for dinner, especially in restaurants that cook fried chicken. The American fast food chain KFC – Kentucky Fried Chicken offers for the occasion the “Party barrel”, a party bucket, which contains fried chicken, salad and a sponge cake with whipped cream and decorated with strawberries. The cakes are then sold off on the evening of December 25th, dedicating them, with the term Kurisumasu Keki, to women who are over 25 and are not yet married, just to understand that if you don’t get married by this age you will need discounts to find an husband.
Among the Christmas traditions, Santa Claus has also been imported and is called Santa-san (san: lord and Santa derives from Santa Claus) and is everywhere: in shops, in restaurants, on television programmes, on cakes, in Osaka a race in which all participants are dressed as Santa Claus. However, it is not usual to receive gifts from Santa Claus but from Hotei-osho, the happy Buddha. In Buddhist culture Hotei-osho is one of the seven deities of luck who is represented with a sack full of gifts and surrounded by children. The children are told that he also has eyes in the back of his head so he can observe them and only the good ones will be rewarded with gifts.
Among the symbols of Christmas, the decorated tree certainly cannot be excluded. The first Christmas tree was created in 1910 by Christian missionaries in Ginza, then the tradition continued and they were decorated with fans, paper lanterns, animals made with the origami technique, which were subsequently replaced by lights. Trees are primarily intended as outdoor decoration, this is because houses are too small to accommodate a medium-sized tree.
Illuminations have become a true art, during the Christmas period there are entire cities or neighborhoods decorated with lights based on traditional images and motifs.
A very special event is organized in Kobe: “Kobe luminarie light festival”. This light event has a very profound meaning because it recalls a terrible earthquake that occurred in 1995 which caused thousands of deaths, on that occasion many were left without light and, to give a little hope, the idea of lighting up the city came up . The peculiarity of this installation is that the lights are all Italian, in fact the first lights, those of 1995, were donated by the Italian Government and still today they are all Italian, in fact they come from Salento. This festival attracts millions of visitors in December, the streets are closed to make that bright world even more magical.
Christmas, with its symbols, is also treated in anime:
in Mazinger Z, in the episode The theft of the Super League Z, Satan Claus P10 appears, a mechanical monster with the appearance of Santa Claus who speeds on a flying sleigh equipped with blades pulled by two rockets; in Doctor Slump and Arale Santa Claus arrives at the Penguin Village under the incredulous eyes of all Arale’s friends, thanks to that bungling genius Senbee Norimaki; in Ranma ½ it’s Christmas Eve and it’s one more reason for Shampoo, Kodachi and Ukyo to fight to have their beloved Ranma all for themselves. In the meantime, preparations for Christmas dinner are underway at the Tendo house. Christmas blows, gifts and Akane’s patience put to the test as always.
Christmas in Japan therefore offers a fascinating mix of Western traditions and Japanese peculiarities, all enriched by a particular interpretation and the universal values of peace and love, therefore, even if well in advance, Merii Kurisumasu to all of you!