Some question about Japanese Calendar.

[cuonglhvt]

Hello everybody!
I'm a new guy here.
I have some question in the links.

How did Japanese convert their holidays and festivals from Lunar calendar to Western Calendar? - Yahoo! Answers

Do Japanese Buddists eat monthly Vegetarian? - Yahoo! Answers

More Questions about Japanese Calendar.? - Yahoo! Answers

I found on the internet that members of Jodo (Pureland) eat shojin ryuri on 16th day each month.
http://buddhistfaith.tripod.com/pureland...
Is it Lunar month or Western month?
Some Japanese festivals originated from Lunar Calendar Festival (3/3, 5/5, 7/7).
But when I said Vietnam can convert (as Japan can) their 1/1, 3/3, 5/5 festivals to Western Calendar, Vietnamese said:
- I only feel warm with my family in the Lunar New Year.
- I only feel "traditional" with the Lunar Calendar.
- I think Japanese regret that Meji’s Government discarded the Lunar Calendar.
So I really want to survey if:
- Do Japanese people feel warm with their family in the Shogatsu?
- Do Japanese people feel “traditional” in the Shogatsu?
- Are Japanese people happy if their Authority use Lunar Calendar for their Festivals, holidays (as before Meji)?
I know that 2008 is the year of Rat (Nezumi). Does a Japanese Child born in January 2008 (before Lunar New year) have age of Rat?

But I couldn't be satified with the answer.
Can you kindly explain for me please?
Thank you in advance!

[MMM]

cuonglhvt, slow down. You have asked a lot of questions in a few posts (and you should probably just edit your first post rather than keep piling on more posts). Have a little patience and people will take a stab at some answers.

Yes, children born in 2008 will be the year of the rat.

I don't have the impression Japanese people are upset about using the Western calendar. For years, Japan uses both the 2008 year and the Japanese yearly calendar (mostly for official and legal documents).

Buddhism is prevelant in Japan, but I wouldn't go so far as to say "most Japanese are buddhists". If you ask 100 Japanese what religion they are, 90+ will say "I don't know".

[cuonglhvt]

Originally Posted by MMM

cuonglhvt, slow down. You have asked a lot of questions in a few posts (and you should probably just edit your first post rather than keep piling on more posts). Have a little patience and people will take a stab at some answers.

Thank you for your attention!
I've already edit my post.

Originally Posted by MMM

Yes, children born in 2008 will be the year of the rat.

But my question is: Will the children born in the January of 2008 will have age of Rat (Nezumi).
Because in my country, it was "the year of boar/pig" until February 6th.

Originally Posted by MMM

I don't have the impression Japanese people are upset about using the Western calendar. For years, Japan uses both the 2008 year and the Japanese yearly calendar (mostly for official and legal documents).

If you don't have impresssion of japanese people feeling, can you kindly tell me your personal feeling (opinion).
Do you think that I am crazy when I say: "Japanese! Pls use the day 1/1, 3/3, 5/5, 7/7, 15/7 of Lunar calendar for Shogatsu, Hinamatsuri, Kodomo no hi, Tanabana and Obon! Because that will be traditional"?
I ask because in my country, when I said "We can use Western calendar for festivals and holidays as Japanese can" people think that I am crazy. , that I am "counter-cultural", "counter-traditional"...
I think that Japanese people is not traditional very much. But people in the world know more about Japanese traditional culture. That proves that if we do the same, we will not be "counter-traditional".
Do you agree?

Originally Posted by MMM

Buddhism is prevelant in Japan, but I wouldn't go so far as to say "most Japanese are buddhists". If you ask 100 Japanese what religion they are, 90+ will say "I don't know".

I think that Japanese traditional believe is a mix of Buddhist and Shinto. I think that is similar to our country, only about 10% people of our country "quy y" (in Kanji 帰依). That means they are "Official Buddhist". About 80% think that Buddhist is a traditional religion as well as Ancestor worship. In our country, people think that Confucianism is undeveloped, but the Ancestor Worship tradition is still be kept.

[MMM]

Originally Posted by cuonglhvt

Thank you for your attention!
I've already edit my post.

But my question is: Will the children born in the January of 2008 will have age of Rat (Nezumi).
Because in my country, it was "the year of boar/pig" until January 6th.

If you don't have impresssion of japanese people feeling, can you kindly tell me your personal feeling (opinion).
Do you think that I am crazy when I say: "Japanese! Pls use the day 1/1, 3/3, 5/5, 7/7, 15/7 of Lunar calendar for Shogatsu, Hinamatsuri, Kodomo no hi, Tanabana and Obon! Because that will be traditional"?
I ask because in my country, when I said "We can use Western calendar for festivals and holidays as Japanese can" people think that I am crazy. , that I am "counter-cultural", "counter-traditional"...
I think that Japanese people is not traditional very much. But people in the world know more about Japanese traditional culture. That proves that if we do the same, we will not be "counter-traditional".
Do you agree?

I think that Japanese traditional believe is a mix of Buddhist and Shinto. I think that is similar to our country, only about 10% people of our country "quy y" (in Kanji 帰依). That means they are "Official Buddhist". About 80% think that Buddhist is a traditional religion (as well as Ancestor worship). In our country, people think that Confucianism is undeveloped, but the Ancestor Worship tradition is still be kept.

I don't know where you are from, so please give a little information about that.

In Japan, children born on January 1 on will be born in the Year of the Rat.

I cannot yet determine if you are crazy or not. If you are making a crusade agaisnt the Western calendar in Japan, I wish you the best of luck. Japan has adopted Christmas, Valentine's Day, Halloween (to a small extent) and other Western holidays, along with their own traditions, so I thing you will be hard pressed to slap the West out of Japan's calendar.

In Japan they say you are born Shinto, marry Christian and die Buddhist. Serious religious practices are only practiced by few, but almost all Japanese participate in religious traditions, even if the tradition is more important than the religion.

[cuonglhvt]

Originally Posted by MMM

I don't know where you are from, so please give a little information about that.

I am from Vietnam. I think Vietnamese have to learn much from Japanese the way (a modest way) to preserve traditional culture. I don't think China is a good teacher.

Originally Posted by MMM

In Japan, children born on January 1 on will be born in the Year of the Rat.

Thank you! I didn't know about that before.

Originally Posted by MMM

I cannot yet determine if you are crazy or not. If you are making a crusade agaisnt the Western calendar in Japan, I wish you the best of luck.

No, on the contrary, I am making a crusade against Lunar Calendar in Vietnam.

Originally Posted by MMM

Japan has adopted Christmas, Valentine's Day, Halloween (to a small extent) and other Western holidays, along with their own traditions, so I thing you will be hard pressed to slap the West out of Japan's calendar.

That is similar to Vietnam, In Chrismas, the Christian stay at home and the non-Christian go downtown . An Vietnamese has adopt Valentine's day and alot of western festival. Most national holidays are in Western Calendar...

Originally Posted by MMM

In Japan they say you are born Shinto, marry Christian and die Buddhist. Serious religious practices are only practiced by few, but almost all Japanese participate in religious traditions, even if the tradition is more important than the religion.

That is similar to my country. In Vietnam, the Buddhist, local religious and ancestor worship traditions mixed together. But in Vietnam, people won't have a Christian wedding if they not yet baptized (I am not Christian).
But more important, can you kindly answer my first questions.
- Do you feel warm with your family in the Shogatsu?
- Do you feel “traditional” in the Shogatsu?
- Are you happy if your Authority use Lunar Calendar for your traditional Festivals, holidays (Shogatsu, Hinamatsuri, Kodomo no hi, Tanabana and Obon). I mean that your Government use two system of Calendar (Lunar Calendar for traditional. Western Calendar for national holiday and western festival). As in China.
Thank you for your answering! I only want to use your answer to open Vietnamese eyes about traditional.

[MMM]

Originally Posted by cuonglhvt

But more important, can you kindly answer my first questions.
- Do you feel warm with their family in the Shogatsu?
- Do you feel “traditional” in the Shogatsu?
- Are you happy if your Authority use Lunar Calendar for your traditional Festivals, holidays (Shogatsu, Hinamatsuri, Kodomo no hi, Tanabana and Obon). I mean that your Government use two system of Calendar (Lunar Calendar for traditional. Western Calendar for national holiday and western festival). As in China.
Thank you for your answering!

1) Shogatsu is probably the most important holiday on the Japanese calendar, and it is a time for the immediate family to spend time together.

2) Traditional food is an important part of Shogatsu, especially as many restaurans remain closed, so these traditions still remain.

3) I am not Japanese, so I cannot answer for a Japanese person whether I am happy or not, but finding a balance between the West and the East, between tradition and modern has been one of the traits the Japanese have excelled at for decades. I have never heard a complaint about this specific topic from a Japanese person before.

[cuonglhvt]

Originally Posted by cuonglhvt

Because in my country, it was "the year of boar/pig" until January 6th.

Sorry! I have a mistake here. According to Lunar Calendar, The year of Rat begin on February 7th.

Originally Posted by MMM

1) Shogatsu is probably the most important holiday on the Japanese calendar, and it is a time for the immediate family to spend time together.

I know that in Japan, they go to Buddhist and Shinto temples in Shogatsu. Similar in Vietnam.

Originally Posted by MMM

2) Traditional food is an important part of Shogatsu, especially as many restaurans remain closed, so these traditions still remain.

Similar in Vietnam. But I think some Vietnamese like to eat Western food and Western drink in "Tết" (Lunar New Year).

Originally Posted by MMM

3) I am not Japanese, so I cannot answer for a Japanese person whether I am happy or not, but finding a balance between the West and the East, between tradition and modern has been one of the traits the Japanese have excelled at for decades. I have never heard a complaint about this specific topic from a Japanese person before.

I regret that you are not Japanese. Can you tell me what forum on the internet where I can discuss with Japanese people about Japanese tradition?

[kyo_9]

they are japanese people also in this forum.. but it seems to me that they didn't notice your thread.. try harder.. huhuh

[cuonglhvt]

Originally Posted by MMM

3) I am not Japanese, so I cannot answer for a Japanese person whether I am happy or not, but finding a balance between the West and the East, between tradition and modern has been one of the traits the Japanese have excelled at for decades. I have never heard a complaint about this specific topic from a Japanese person before.

I heard that in Meji Era there are three ways of cultural policy set out for discussion:

1. Progressive: Arinori Mori is the first Minister of Education. He recommended a lot of policies to remove many traditional standard that he think is obsolete. He even recommended to use English instead of Japanese.

2. Conservative: N. Motoda opposed strongly the Westernization.

3. Neutralize: Yukichi Fukuzawa.

I don't know which group recommended the use of Western Calendar for traditional festivals.

I don't know what was the argument between groups about this topic. Is their any historic document? I don't think 100 years is a long time enought to delete the historic proves of this.

I want to know what Japanese people at that time thought when they have to convert to Western Calendar.

I really want to study about this topic and more about Japanese history.

@kyo_9: Thanks for your encouragement!

[Nyororin]

I think that in a lot of ways, you`re sort of misunderstanding the "festivals on the western calendar" thing.

Shougatsu is celebrated on 1/1 - however, every other festival I can think of has just been moved to the coinciding date. You`ll find discrepancies between the dates of different celebrations based on the region, etc. Festivals that have
traditionally been held on the lunar calendar are still mostly set by the lunar cycle. Changing the way of saying the date doesn`t actually change the time of the festival.

And from my husband, who is Japanese;

- Do you feel warm with your family in the Shogatsu?

I don`t know what you mean by "warm", but it is the time for the family to gather.

- Do you feel “traditional” in the Shogatsu?

To an unfortunate level.

- Are you happy if your Authority use Lunar Calendar for your traditional Festivals, holidays (Shogatsu, Hinamatsuri, Kodomo no hi, Tanabana and Obon). I mean that your Government use two system of Calendar (Lunar Calendar for traditional. Western Calendar for national holiday and western festival). As in China.

Other countries also use two calendar systems for festival dates. Normal dating is done by the western calendar, so if no one bothered to tell everyone what date lunar festivals fell on with the western calendar it would be a great pain. Tanabata is set locally, some places use the July date, some places celebrate in August.
Two calendars are a pain to remember. What is the problem with setting them on the one calendar that is relatively universal?