customsC

Christmas in China

Christmas has been known to some of the Chinese people for about four hundred years. To the great majority, Christmas and its meaning are beyond their realm of understanding. Chinese Christians call this feast day Sheng Dan Jieh (Holy Birth Festival) and the Christmas tree is appropriately called the Tree of Light. When we consider the cultural background of this ancient nation and its contribution to every phase of man's intellectual development, it is perhaps not too surprising to find precise language used to describe those things the Chinese hold sacred. Children hang up stockings (made of muslin especially for the occasion) and expect Lan Khoong-Khoong (Nice Old Father) to fill them. In China, Santa Claus is also known as Dun Che Lao Ren (Christmas Old Man). Because of their love of brilliant color and glitter, the Chinese greataly enjoy the Western Christmas decorations and have made extensive use of their own colorful paper lanterns for holiday decorations. Those who exchange gifts adhere closely to their own tradition regarding presents. Choice and costly presents are given only to members of the family, while those of remembrance value are for friends and distant relatives. Fireworks such as are used in southern Europe, in Latin America, and in the south of the US have their place in China to usher in Christmas. It is a time of feasting and merrymaking, with jugglers and acrobats contributing their talents to this new festival adopted from the Christian world. Decorations made of colored paper and evergreens are used in the Christian homes and churches in China. Brightly hued paper chains, posters carrying messages of peace and joy, and paper flowers for the tree are typical of the ornaments. Paper lanterns are used in the church services at Christmas.
The Chinese New Year, which begins in late January or early February, depending on the position of the moon, is a week-long celebration: the most important of the year. On the last day of the old year, accounts are settled by business men in every type of enterprise. It is also a day of feasting, ceremony, and firecrackers. Gilt paper is burned on a charcoal brazier both before and after the dinner, which is served to the head of the house by the younger sons. Then the remains of the smoldering gilt paper are divided into twelve piles----one for each month. The time required for the flame of each pile to die out indicates the changes from rain to drought that can be expected during the year. The first celebration on New Year's Day is the offering made to heaven and earth. Rice, vegetables, tea, wine, candles, and incense are used in the ceremony. Tribute is paid to ancestors and to all living members of the family. Chinese homes are elaborately decorated for this festival with brightly colored banners (unless the family is in mourning), bearing expressions of happiness and expressing ambitions for the coming year. Business is suspended during this time of rejoicing, and in the past considerable sums of money were spent on fireworks. Gifts are exchanged, new clothes are worn, and the children have their share of toys and fireworks, too. The Feast of the Lanterns is the great spectacle of the week and no one is so poor that he does not have at least one lantern to light for the occasion. This is also the time for the Festival of the Dragons and the Fisherman's Festival. Every nation has its own collection of unusual folk beliefs. In China it is considered unlucky to meet a woman when you leave home, for the first time, on New Year's Day.

Christmas in Japan

In Japan, where the numerous festivals are held throughout the year, lanterns and flowers, children and ancestors, flags and dolls and the various seasons as well come in for their share of tribute. Pageantry and ceremonial are as much a part of life as the gracious manners and the high standard of decorum which are so characteristically Japanese. The birthday of the Christ Child is comparataively new to them, dating back only about a hundred years. Actually, Christmas little known in Japan until the beginning 20th century, but it has become widely familiar, because of the millions of decorations and trinkets and the over-growing number of products manufactured in Japan for the Christmas markets of the world. While missionaries of many creeds paved the way, radio, television, newspapers and magazines, the exchange of foreign students, and commercial enterprise have all contributed immeasurably to the popularization of Christmas among those who do not profess Christianity. Each year, in increasing numbers, the Japanese exchange gifts, eat turkey for Christmas dinner, and, in some communities, even have community Christmas trees. The decorative uses of mistletoe and holly are familiar to many of them, also the carols, which they sing in their own language. Hoteiosho, one of their gods, serves as Santa Claus for their children. However, New Year's Day, Oshogatsu, is the elading holiday in Japan. This is the time when houses are given a thorough cleaning before they are decorated. Branches of pine are attached to the entrance gates of the homes, and both pine and bamboo have a place of special importance at the family shrine indoors as symbols of long life. Ropes of twisted rice straw, hung above the gates, mean strong family ties, and, when the tiny Japanese oranges are added, they signify "roundness and smoothness". Families dress in their best clothes to pay visits to their friends, and they never fail to pay tribute to their ancestors and departed members of the familu on this day. Ceremonies are held at home to drive out the evil spirits. Dried beans tossed into the corner of every room are the means by which evil is dispelled, to be replaced with good fortune. Japanese children make the most of the occasion, with the boys flying kites and the girls enjoying favorite games. The boys also organize small bands composed of drums, cymbals, and the flute, and go about playing for the amusement of their elders and all who care to listen. This performance is in mimicry of adults who go about as maskers, performing in a similar manner. Toys are used at New Year's to decorate the branches of trees and are carried about for the amusement of the children, who later receive them as gifts. In many ways, the Japanese New Year celebration resembles Christmas in the Western World. Business establishments are losed for three days and it is truly a family festival in which devotion to the home is uppermost.

(Source: Christmas the World Over by Daniel J. Foley)