日本の正月 (Japanese New Year)

(For clarity purposes, whenever I have Justin, he'll have a black stripe on his tail, and Keiji will be the only one with lots of hair :P)

In Japan, New Year's is a bigger (by far) holiday than Christmas. In fact, to the Japanese, it is the most important holiday, and therefore deserves extra paganitry, eh? :( But what exactally do they do during this important time? The Japanese have a great many different New Year's ceremonies, and I'll discuss just a few (I'm lame and I know no one cares).

First is the shimenawa, used for ritual purification (sounds really fancy but everyone knows it isn't...) in Shintoism, and for warding away evil spirits (unfortunately, it may do just the opposite...). The space bound by this is supposedly "sacred" or "pure," so I guess evil guys get scared of all that good (?)( no clue if that's the logic here)...

Another is the kadamatsu, which is used to supposedly bring long life (ya know, having a lot of long tube thingies right by your door just naturally lengthens your life). Pretty much just a fancy decoration.

When talking of holidays, you can't forget the food, and when talking of food, you can't forget the gods, right? This is where the kagamimochi comes into play. The name comes from two words, mirror (kagami) and mochi (mochi), [the meaning actually doesn't help in the understanding of the word since the origional meaning is lost]. Kagamimochi is placed on your family home for the gods. Symbolises the coming and going of years, ying and yang, the sun and moon, blah blah blah, other paganey crud. All that good stuff.

And, of course, we can't forget our forget-the-year parties, or bonenkai. These are not necessarily held on New Years, but they usually happen sometime in December. The Japanese are, suprizingly, a culture that looks kindly upon the drunk. Because of this, to escape the intense social pressures, many Japanese will drink regularly. New Years is just an excuse to do so, it seems.

And finally, there's Hatumode, or the first shrine visit of the new year. For the Japanese, "religion" (I use parenthesis to enclose this sloopy word) is a very small part of their lives, if a part at all. But why these visits to shrines? For most Japanese, visits are just little social dwitties. 'Well, I'm Japanese, and all good Japanese are going to the temples and shrines, and everyone I know is too, so I'll go.' They have no real spritual commitment to any belief, either eastern or western. They just go with the flow of everyone else.

In Japan, while people are much more "modern," more liberally and atheisticy, there is a definate want to keep the "old ways" around. Although it is a very shallow sort of thing, the Japanese don't want to let go of their old culture, and yet don't want to really be obedient to the religions themselves. They are a strange mixture of atheism and superstition. Rather sad, actually. But, because they are so lost, they may be much more open to hearing some sort of truth for their lives. Perhaps now, more than ever, Japan is ready for the gospel.