My sister gave me, for Chrismahanukwanzakah, the Marx Brothers movie A Night at the Opera, which contains among its memorable scenes contract negotiation between Groucho and Chico. When they reach the standard sanity clause Chico gets dismissive, "Aw, you can't fool me. I know there's no such thing as Sanity Claus."
It's a little unclear what holiday my sister and I were celebrating. I gave her a mezuzah I brought back from Israel, but I gave it to her on Christmas Eve. Partly this is due to us having been 200 miles apart on any of the nights of Hanukah. And partly this is due to our strange upbringing where Santa regularly visited a house with two Jewish kids. In fact, one year he gave me pickled herring, a fine NY-Jewish delicacy, in my stocking. Santa is nothing if not eclectic. I am nothing if not confused...
Comments (1)
Well, at least you realize (well, now) the source of your confusion. I did not celebrate Christmas this year. No, I'm not a grinch (well, not most years). It's just one of the things that feels wrong about Japan and its habit of adopting Western customs. Some things can be explained away somewhat easily - the fact that people eat fried chicken instead of turkey (a combination of a dearth of turkeys and marketing genius by Japan's KFC), or the fact that there are very few Christmas trees (no pine trees here).
But the big mystery is, of course, why they celebrate Christmas in a country which is less than 1 percent Christian. It feels weird. It feels weird enough celebrating Christmas in a country that is mostly Christian; I guess if you really want to see what a secluar Christmas is like, you should take a peek in Tokyo from about mid-December.
Well, the major difference here is that Christmas and New Year's are kind of switched - Christmas Eve is the night where you try to find a date to spend the holiest of nights with someone special... New Year's Eve, you spend time with your family and quietly welcome the New Year.
Hopefully, this year, I will have some sort of celebration on New Year's Eve, but I haven't made any real plans yet.
Posted by Koichi | December 26, 2004 4:06 AM
Posted on December 26, 2004 04:06