Easter In Japan?

[nobora]

My family (mexican) Put confetti in eggs. Some of them have money and if you got confettu crack it in someones head ^_^

[Nyororin]

Easter in Japan is totally nonexistent.
For some reason, it hasn`t been commercialized here. Or maybe it`s just outweighed by all the other stuff happening this time of year - sakura, new school year, etc.

I don`t even know when Easter is.

[Nagoyankee]

Originally Posted by SHAD0W

since you guys have christmas

Do we? It's true a lot of us celebrate it in a very commercial way, especially among lovers. But Christmas never was a holiday here. It's a regular working day unless it happens to fall on a weekend.

[Nyororin]

Originally Posted by Nagoyankee

Do we? It's true a lot of us celebrate it in a very commercial way, especially among lovers. But Christmas never was a holiday here. It's a regular working day unless it happens to fall on a weekend.

It may not be a national holiday - but ask any child what Christmas is, and I think you`d have quite a lot of difficulty finding one who didn`t answer with something connected to Santa, presents, or tree.

Easter, on the other hand... And I think it would be equally as hard to find a child who`d ever heard of it.

Easter, in my opinion, has just as much commercialization potential as, say, Valentine`s Day. Chocolate eggs, gift baskets to children, events, etc!

[Nagoyankee]

Originally Posted by Nyororin

It may not be a national holiday - but ask any child what Christmas is, and I think you`d have quite a lot of difficulty finding one who didn`t answer with something connected to Santa, presents, or tree.

I'm not asking a child about this because I know all that. I myself was a Japanese child until just a few years ago! Christmas was fun. Back then I just never knew it was a national holiday in many other countries.

Missing the pre-subway era in Nagoya... The streetcars, the little 3-wheeled automobiles and not a single skyscraper. An okonomiyaki only cost 20-30 yen! 10 yen got you a big icecream bar. Only a few years ago....

[blimp]

Originally Posted by Nagoyankee

Missing the pre-subway era in Nagoya... The streetcars, the little 3-wheeled automobiles and not a single skyscraper. An okonomiyaki only cost 20-30 yen! 10 yen got you a big icecream bar. Only a few years ago....

aah, the good old days. osaka had two baseball teams with a stadium in the city center. we had a different comedian as mayor and takoyaki stands could be found in every corner. shinsuke 島田伸助 was still part of a combo and there was no knight scoop. (ok, so the last two once are a little bit before my time)

just for the record, i like knight scoop

oh, easter...no there is not too much easter around here.

[Nagoyankee]

Originally Posted by blimp

oh, easter...no there is not too much easter around here.

Agreed. I couldn't even tell a toaster and Easter apart.

What I find funny, though, is the fact that a lot of "Westerners" expect us to celebrate their holidays when they celebrate none of ours.

[Nyororin]

Originally Posted by Nagoyankee

Missing the pre-subway era in Nagoya... The streetcars, the little 3-wheeled automobiles and not a single skyscraper. An okonomiyaki only cost 20-30 yen! 10 yen got you a big icecream bar. Only a few years ago....

A few tens of years ago. :P

The 20~30 yen okonomiyaki though... I know a place in 南区 that still only charges that much.
At least I got here before Nagoya station towers were finished though. Watched the opening on TV and was very glad I wasn`t actually present, as it looked like people were crushing each other on their way in.

Back to the topic (sort of) though - how long has Christmas been a fairly well known thing?

What I find funny, though, is the fact that a lot of "Westerners" expect us to celebrate their holidays when they celebrate none of ours.

I think that is partially because most of Europe, and a fair chunk of the rest of the world does celebrate the Christian holidays. For a lot of people, it`s very hard to imagine somewhere not being all that influenced by Christianity - even if it`s not Christian.

[Nagoyankee]

Originally Posted by Nyororin

　

Back to the topic (sort of) though - how long has Christmas been a fairly well known thing?

I had to do some research to answer because Christmas was already pretty much the way it is now in Japan when I was a kid in the 60's.

In the 16th century, the first recorded Mass was held. There must not have been anything commercial about Christmas back then. Still it involved less than 1% of the Japanese population that were Christian.

As you know Christianity was banned during the Edo period. It wasn't before 1900 when the general public came to know about Christmas. Meidi-ya started selling Christmas cakes in Tokyo in 1900 and from that moment on, we got hooked on the new "custom", as commercial and invented as they were. In 1925, the government issued the Christmas postage stamps and donated part of their sales to charity. People started holding parties where they drank champaign, ate cakes, exchanged presents, etc.

So, apart from Christmas celebrated by real Christians in Japan, which seems to have a 500-year history, the history of Christmas celebrated in highly commecial ways by the general public looks to have a roughly 100-year history.


.

[redsteel]

Originally Posted by SHAD0W

Now I know Japan is mainly a buddist/shinto-ist country, but I was wondering (since you guys have christmas) if you celebrate Easter too?

For most people in England, the best way to celebrate Easter is to exchange gifts of chocolate eggs (or the "Easter Bunny" will "deliver" them while you sleep) because the egg symbolises new life and also represents the boulder that Jesus moved out of the way once he came back to life.

These chocolate eggs are usually hollow, and usually contain sweets (candy), more chocolate or even small toys inside.



Also, If you're not in Japan, how is Easter (if at all) celebrated in your country?

Happy Easter Everyone!

as anything else there are many interpretation of why you do celebrate and how you celebrate an special holyday. Easter is a Christian celebration of Jesus. having said that, your eggs represent life or reproduction. it's from them where chickens are born. the bunnies represent life or reproduction. Easter is celebrated on Spring which is the mating season or reproduction.
the candy, chocolates,dying or coloring eggs, egg hunting is commercialized to gaing profit, but it is fun!!!! for the family, specieli for those whom don't want nothing to do with Christ. even on Christ-mas.