Holidays

Since fall's approach I've started to think a lot about American seasonal and holiday traditions and their contrast with Japan's.

I've lived abroad twice before, in France and Nagasaki, but both were during the summer, only one season long. This is my first autumn and winter away from the U.S. of A. As I experience autumn here, I realize that it takes being separated from your home culture to be able to see it with a more objective eye. Only by being apart from something can you realize what you take for granted. Japan observes the Western holidays of Halloween and Christmas, but because these holidays lack history here, the extent and type of celebration can be very different. For example, this is the Halloween I love from the states:

And this is Halloween in Japan:

As cute as it is, that's not the Halloween I know. The cultural tradition and meaning behind the holiday isn't there. Yes, Halloween is now essentially a for-fun holiday in the states, but because we've been celebrating it for hundreds of years, it has manifested itself in deep ways in our culture. In Japan it's just another vacuous Western import.

Christmas is worse. Christmas isn't about family...it's a date night! Come December, I will feel the pangs of longing for singing winter choral music, decorating the Christmas tree with mama, lights on the trees everywhere, and exchanging gifts and cards with friends. It's such a big part of me, I can almost tear up just thinking about it.

But, experiencing all this nostalgia and yearning for the culture I know and love makes me happy, because it makes me realize that pride and warmth actually exist in me. I could spend forever bashing my country's policies, government, educational system, etc, but of course there is a part of me that feels at home being American and doing these American things. Oh wait...I actually like Halloween and look forward to it! I hadn't realized. This so-called "Western tradition" is my home, my comfort zone, as it is for all who grew up with it. By being apart from my comfort zone, I can better conceptualize that where one grows up determines their center vs. periphery, their comfort zone vs. unknown.

When I go to a matsuri, or when I read about the traditions of Sho-gatsu or Setsubun, I try to understand the the associations that Japanese people have with their holidays. Japan has a literal wealth of holidays and traditions which are much, much older than anything ever made in America. I'm very excited to experience them.

I am in Japan. I want to observe Japanese cultural tradition for what it is, and not get caught up in what I'm missing out on back home....but it makes me happy to realize that I do miss it. :)