Christmas​—A Time of Festivity for Orientals

GIANT Christmas trees, bright lights, colorful banners​—they are seen in every shopping center and department store. Strains of Christmas carols blare over loudspeakers, and announcements encourage people to buy more. Men and women clad in Santa Claus costumes stroll up and down the streets offering giveaways in a patronizing manner. Is this a scene in a “Christian” country? No, this is in Japan, where less than 1 percent of the population claims to be Christian.

Similarly, on the neighboring island of Taiwan, both “Christians” and non-Christians celebrate Christmas with their traditional gift giving. And in the Chinese communities in Malaysia, firecrackers add a new dimension to the festivities of the “Christian” holiday.

Why do these people celebrate Christmas? Do they believe in Christmas? Or do they believe in the festivities of Christmas? The evidence shows that “eat, drink, and be merry” is the message that they get from the Christmas celebrations. Many practice “Christianity” on December 24 and 25 but go back to their own way​—Buddhism, Shintoism, Taoism, or whatever—​the next day. How, though, could people of such diverse religious backgrounds possibly take part in a “Christian” holiday?

When a little boy in Japan was asked about whether he believes in Santa Claus, he answered, ‘I believe in Santa because he gave me many games.’ His answer reflects the thinking of many in the Orient: ‘Be open-minded. Do not be too rigid about religion. If you can get something out of it, enjoy it. But keep it in its place so that it does not affect other aspects of your life.’

This way of thinking is clearly seen in a survey conducted by a major Japanese newspaper. One of the questions asked was: “In Japan, it is common for the same person to participate in various religious events such as omiyamairi [a Shintoist event to celebrate the growth of children], ohigan [a semiannual Buddhist ritual to commemorate the deceased], and Christmas. Do you think this is objectionable?” Only 19 percent answered “objectionable.” Even among those who claim to be Christians, 60 percent felt there was nothing wrong in celebrating festivals of different religions.

This mentality results in a peculiar religious phenomenon​—many claim to be adherents of more than one religion. According to the Agency for Cultural Affairs, the grand total of adherents of religious groups in Japan was 207,080,000 at the end of 1982, whereas the estimated population of Japan in 1982 was only 118,600,000. This means that the total membership of the religions in Japan amounted to 170 percent of the total population!

“Impossible!” people in monotheistic cultures might exclaim. But the same ambivalence in religious attitudes prevails in the Western way of celebrating Christmas too. How could this be? And if it is so, should you celebrate Christmas?

[Picture on page 3]

Total membership of religions in Japan: 207,080,000

Total Japanese population: 118,600,000

Should You Celebrate Christmas?

TO ILLUSTRATE the similarity and the difference between the Eastern and the Western way of celebrating Christmas, the information here presented takes the form of two letters exchanged between a Japanese writer and his friend in England. The information will help you to answer the question: Should I celebrate Christmas?

Dear David,

They are at it again. The merchants are leading the people like chief priests. Santa Claus is the master of ceremonies. Christmas trees serve as the symbol of the celebration. And offerings of Christmas cakes and toys are presented. The merchants are propagating the religion of Christmas in Japan. Their mission has been quite successful in the past three or four decades. An enormous number of Japanese are converted to this “religion”​—at least for a couple of days a year!

This has intrigued me. I have often wondered why so many Japanese, who are mainly non-Christians, would be celebrating a “Christian” holiday. When did the Japanese begin to celebrate Christmas to such an extent? What is behind all of this?

Looking for the origin of the Japanese Christmas, I found this interesting story. Sōseki Natsume, a great writer of the Meiji era (1868-1912), sent a Christmas postcard from England to Shiki Masaoka, a famous poet, describing the fascinating Christmas scene in London at the end of the year 1900. Shiki even composed a haiku, the shortest form of Japanese poetry, about a small chapel on a Christmas Day. Apparently, Christmas was still a novelty at the turn of the century in Japan. So, exactly when did the Japanese celebrate their first Christmas?

You may be interested to know that some authorities claim that Christmas was celebrated in a girls’ school in Ginza as early as the eighth year of Meiji (1875). Yet “the custom of celebrating Christmas did not really begin to take hold in Japan until 1945,” observed The Christian Century. That was when the Japanese saw the families of American soldiers and missionaries celebrating Christmas. After being defeated in World War II and being left in a spiritual vacuum, the Japanese in general needed something to cheer them.

Christmas satisfied that need. As you can imagine, merchants did not waste any time in using Christmas decorations to promote their year-end sales. Christmas decorations “worked like magic in drawing customers,” says a newspaper columnist, Kimpei Shiba. “This,” he added, “was because these ornamentations were attractive and generated gaiety.”

But, David, since you live in England, you may not know that the Japanese had the custom of exchanging year-end gifts long before Christmas presents came along. December has always been a boon for retailers. People with thick wallets from their year-end bonus go out on a spending spree. “This atmosphere [of Christmas],” however, “put the people into a merry, spending mood and induced them to buy more osei-bo [year-end gifts] than they usually did, so the custom of using Christmas decorations has continued,” explains Mr. Shiba.

Today, department stores and retailers climb on the bandwagon to make the best of the “Christmas spirit” that seems to work so well. Toymakers and bakeries zero in on this atmosphere to take advantage of the season. In December, sales at Kiddy Land, the biggest toy-store chain in Japan, have been four times higher than other months. It is estimated that 5 to 10 percent of all the cakes produced in Japan each year are what could be termed “Christmas cakes.”

I found out that some people are annoyed because commercialism rules the Christmas scene in Japan. For instance, The Daily Yomiuri quotes an American who has lived a long time in Japan: “The Japanese have adopted nearly all of the Christmas gimmickry but somehow the spirit of the season is not here.” He was talking about the religious aspect of Christmas.

This prompted me to look into the religious side of Christmas. Churchgoers claim that Christmas (December 25) is Christ’s birthday. How surprised I was to find in the Encyclopedia of Japanese Religions that it cannot be established that Jesus was born on December 25! The encyclopedia says: “Though the actual date of Jesus’ birthday is not known, Christmas has been celebrated on December 25 starting around the third century . . . This date falls approximately on the day of the winter solstice, and it took over the pre-Christian festival of the rebirth of the Sun.” Rebirth of the sun? I thought it was supposed to be the birthday of Jesus. Well, how could sincere Christians celebrate a festival that originally was a pagan celebration of the winter solstice? It was not the birthday of Jesus but the festival of the rebirth of the sun. How could Western churchgoers criticize the Japanese as being unprincipled in celebrating a “Christian” holiday while they themselves have essentially the same kind of observance?

So, David, I would appreciate it if you could answer these questions for me, as they are most disturbing.

Your friend,

Ichiro

Dear Ichiro,

Thank you very much for your letter describing the Christmas celebration in your country. It is most interesting for us Westerners to learn how Eastern people celebrate a Western holiday.

If I may be quite pointed, you are perfectly justified in saying that Christmas is a pagan holiday. Almost any reference work will tell you that the festival of Christmas originated in the pagan celebration of Saturnalia, the Roman festival for their agricultural god Saturn.

Yes, just as you Japanese people have taken Christmas into your Buddhist and Shintoist cultures, the churches of Christendom have taken pagan festivals into their “Christian” tradition. In a sense it may be even more sinful because while the Japanese celebrate Christmas as a foreign festival, the churchgoers observe the pagan celebration of Saturnalia as a “Christian” Christmas.