December 9, 2004

Hark the Herald Angels Sing

For a Pagan nation, Japan sure loves Christmas carols. Today is only December 8th and I can't walk into a store without hearing "Oh Come All Ye Faithful" or "Let it Snow."

I am not breaking new ground with this idea, but clearly Christmas is the most holy day of Consumer Culture. And if so, it makes perfect sense that the Japanese would be as interested in its celebration as the God-fearing West.

Posted by marxy at December 9, 2004 12:54 AM
Comments

I think it's lovely that Xmas Eve in Japan is the equivalent of St Valentine's Day in the west. You put the 'X' in Xmas Eve by taking your lover for dinner then going to a love hotel. What would St Paul say?

Posted by: Momus at December 10, 2004 11:55 PM

St. Paul would probably say something extremely dramatic about sinning and stick it in Christ's mouth.

Posted by: marxy at December 11, 2004 12:24 AM


It would be more descriptive to call the Japanese Xmas "Yu-ru", but then that wouldn't be Engrish would it?

Slightly off-topic, but I read an essay by Donald Ritchie this morning on the kiss in Japan. Apparently public kissing was banned from 1920 to 1945, under penalty of imprisonment. By contrast homosexuality was illegal only briefly, for six years in the early Meiji era.
The essay included an account of an amusing incident about the exhibition of a Rodin statue of a naked couple kissing. It caused a huge controversy until the following solution was proposed by the police: the statue could be exhibited with the heads covered. The nakedness was not the problem, it was the kiss. The same statue now sits at the entrance to the Tokyo Museum of Western art, according to Ritchie.

If these aren't evidence for core cultural differences what are they?

Posted by: sparkligbeatnic at December 11, 2004 4:52 PM