In the US, Europe, Australia, the Christmas holiday is definitely the biggest holiday of the season. Whether or not someone is a Christian, the birth of Jesus Christ was definitely a history changing event. In the West, Christmas is a big time for relaxing, sharing time with family that you haven’t seen for a while, and eating and eating.
In Japan, it is a bit of a different story. Christmas is definitely more of commercial experience as people do not really know the reason for the season. Japanese usually eat a “Christmas cake” and eat chicken. I suppose the chicken comes in where the turkey does in the West. We do not have access to turkey in Japan as there does not seem to be a market. They definitely know how to decorate, but the day after Christmas the decorations come down and the “Oshogatsu” (New Years Holiday) decorations go up. This is very quick. Tokyo Disneyland is probably the best example of how quickly they change as you can watch it happen before your eyes on Christmas day if you happen to be there.
Japanese Oshogatsu is a wonderful time, it is much like the American Christmas with the families getting together, all the relaxing and eating. The festivities usually start on New Years Eve and go through to 3 January. Most companies take off from about 30 December, so the majority of the holiday is from December 30 through January 3rd. January 1-3 is a time with Japanese families are together mostly eating, sleeping, watching TV and eating and eating. Of course, the popular foods are mochi (rice cakes), fish, vegetables, and such. It is a wonderful time where all of Japan slows down to a stop.
During those first few days of January, the majority of the country is watching television. Japanese television companies broadcast a lot of performances with a competition between performers grouped into the ‘red group’ of performers and the ‘white group’ of performers. There is a lot of singing, stand up comedians acting in pairs, all sorts of quiz shows, and of course silly competitions of famous people referred to as ‘talent’.
After a couple days of laying around the house (or the grandparents house) people tend to go out to all the New Year sales and if they have travelled to their relatives houses they tend to start heading back to their homes.
Most people have to be back to work by January 4th or 5th. After all the relaxing, we can say most of the nation is probably refreshed and ready for the challenge of the New Year.