Quote:
Originally Posted by clintjm
bump that.
Anyway despite a small percentage of Japanese being Christian, the idea and spirit of Christmas and the season is quite nice I thought during the few years I lived there and when I there during the holiday. It kind of carries over with the bigger new year holiday. A time for being with people (even if the giving is not in the form of lots of gift giving).
Japanese go all out for the holiday the week of Christmas. Christmas celebration of the miles of beautiful decoration and miles of amazing Christmas light show shine through in an event to get people out to share the holiday or at least the party aspect of it...
Despite it not being a Japanese holiday, the amount of money, design and work done on the christmas lighting decoration in many parts of big city downtown is mind boggling. Absolutely stunning and beautiful. Most American cities would don't go to the lengths Japan does for the lighting display. But the fact is the BIG light shows are only there for a week at most and literally come down after midnight. I saw Christmas decorations being taken down at 12:30a ... 12/26 that same night downtown.
In the states... its like mid to late January for some people ^_^
The point is they don't drag the holiday around for 2 months like we do.... (Aside from the point that SanGetsu reminded me of just now... as they do play some deep christmas tunes starting in November in department stores - which I don't think many American stores do much of anymore - Xmas music that is.)
Anyway the US is just making Christmas a little less every year and need to take a step back and enjoy an exchange of a gift or two and just take some time. Instead, for many, people just stress out. I was sickened to see on the US news recently that some retail giants were opened on Thanksgiving Day for a pre-black friday sale; as for the shoppers many just don't know what else to do.
Its funny though, that Japan, who really doesn't hold the modern Christmas traditions like Christians do, have made it into a tradition that is far less stressful and pleasant than the American Christmas tradition. (For some)
Sangetsu also had a good point. You can still say Merry Christmas to some without it offending someone. Or perhaps some Christmas decoration or tree. This is really what is slowly eating America from the inside out.
Washington State Bans Holiday Displays Inside Capitol
Anyway MMM had the best point in this quoted above...
Despite some of the points in my qwerky post. |
It's funny, there are very few holidays left in the US that aren't bogged down by commercialism. Even black Friday has started ruining Thanksgiving. Really, about the only holiday left is 4th of July.