"Hotei and Santa" by Akira Kajiura. Eastern and Western Big-Bags meet together. Even though it's the very first meeting, they look like old friends. – Dec.3.'97

Early December

A young bear, two or three years old, is baited and ceremoniously killed. Dancing and feasting accompany his send-off to the spirit world. The animal is not considered killed since his living spirit is sent away to its heaven in the mountains. There he once more enjoys the society of his parents and friends. After a time he is supposedly reincarnated and returns to earth as another cub.

Source:   Ainu Life and Lore:   Echoes of a Departing Race by John Batchelor. Tokyo: Kyobunkwan, 1927, pp. 205-206, 209-211.

December 8

This is the final day to finish needlework for the year.

Source: Chiyo's Return by Chiyono Sugimoto Kiyooka. Garden City, N.Y.: Doubleday, Doran & Company, 1936, p. 23.

December 16 -25

This begins the pre-Christmas season for daily morning masses. Before the first mass, houses are decorated with star lanterns, called parols. Made of translucent colored paper with bamboo frames, they are lit with candles or small electric bulbs. Streamers hanging from them represent star rays. The lanterns are placed in windows and doorways to symbolize the star of Bethlehem.

An hour or so before dawn, a band marches through the streets to awaken the people. Because it is still dark, people light the way to church with their star lanterns. Inside the church is candlelight and a very large star at the entrance. The church choir sings Christmas music and priest preside over the mass. After the service, everyone gathers in the plaza for breakfast or snacks.

Source: Celebrations: Asia and the Pacific by Gene Sawyer. Honolulu: Friends of the East-West Center, 1978, p. 94.

In the northern hemisphere, the winter solstice is the shortest day of the year. After this date, the days begin to lengthen and the light and warmth of the sun slowly return. This day is important in the religious cycles of many cultures. In the southern hemisphere this is the date of the summer solstice, the longest day of the year.

Hong Kong

Under the monarchy of China, this was the day on which the Emperor led the animal sacrifices at the Temple of Heaven in Peking. No foreigners and very few Chinese were ever permitted to see this ceremony. The ordinary people of the capital were obliged to stay home behind their curtains so that the Emperor's procession could pass by without danger of his being seen.

After the fall of the monarchy in 1912, the Imperial rites were abandoned, but in Hong Kong the people still treat this day as a time for staying home, making offerings to ancestors, and enjoying a family dinner.

Source:   Chinese Festivals in Hong Kong by Joan Law and Barbara E. Ward. Hong Kong: A South China Morning Post Production, 1982, p. 83.

"OOEN – A Helper –" by Akira Kajiura. Hotei has come to help Santa Claus. – Dec.1.'99

Japan

Family Christmas gatherings do not center around dinner, but rather upon the Christmas cake. This cake, called a "decoration cake," emphasizes its ridges and waves of thick frosting. The cake is almost always purchased.

In the past, stockings could not be hung by a fireplace in the typical Japanese house so most parents placed the presents by the children's pillows during the night and some transferred the chimney motif to its closest Japanese counterpart, the pipe for the bathtub stove. Thus the stockings are hung by the bathtub with care.

Though Christmas cards are used, they are only exchanged sparingly.

Source:   "The Japanese Popular Christmas: Coping With Modernity" by David W. Plath in Journal of American Folklore, 71 (302), (October-December 1963) 308-317.

Malaysia (Sarawak)

On Christmas Eve, in Sarawak, a service is held in the church, which stands on stilts at the edge of the water. At the end of the service, the young people, dressed in white and carrying candles, climb down the notched pole that leads to the wharf below and paddle up and down the river, which serves as the village street. At the wharf of each member of congregration, they stop and sing carols, ending with the greeting, "Selemat hari Kristmas," or "Merry Christmas." The householders are waiting for them and they set off firecrackers of every shape and size as their part of the ceremony. The singing goes on until midnight and then the young people return home for family celebrations.

Source:   Children's Festivals from Many Lands by Nina Millen. New York: Friendship Press, 1964, p. 84-85.

Philippines

Starting on the dawn of the 16th, Filipinos celebrate nine days of early morning masses called "misas de gallo." In the early days, the Spanish missionaries had to resort to all forms of showmanship to attract the newly-baptized natives to church. These nine days of early morning masses may have been among the advertising gimmicks the missionaries used to impress the converts on the significance of the Nativity.

Source:   The Galleon Guide to Philippine Festivals by Alfornso J. Aluit. Manila: Galleon, 1969, pp. 152-153.

Japan

In Tokyo, a fire watch is conducted on the last two days of the year and is seen as a customary part of the preparations and events leading up to O-Shogatsu - the New Year, Japan's most important holiday.

Around eight in the evening of December 30 and December 31, men of the chokai, mostly younger leaders or would-be leaders, gather at the chokai hall. Inside they sip tea as they huddle around a gas stove for warmth, waiting for enough members to show up to begin the patrols. When 10 to 12 men have arrived, they divide into two teams and agree on which group will patrol kami and which shimo, the upper and lower halves of the neighborhood.

In these groups, the men set out carrying powerful flashlights and candle-lit paper lanterns. The lanterns signify that this in an official chokai activity. One member carries a pair of wooden clappers joined by a long cord looped behind. The bearer of the clapper beats out a distinctive and customary rhythm and calls out in a deep, drawn out voice, "Hi no yojin," translated as "Take care with fire!"

Source:   Neighborhood Tokyo by Theodore C. Bestor. Stanford, CA: Stanford Univ. Press, 1989, pp. 133-134.

"Hotei and Santa" and "OOEN - A Helper" paintings by Akira Kajiura. To view Akira's gallery, or for further information, please click on the banner below.