Christmas in Japan
If you are in Japan, there is no official Christmas holiday and you are probably working like any other day. You probably just assumed that Christmas would be a day off and it must have come as a bit of a shock when you moved to Japan and found out that it isn’t a national holiday and that you had to work!
This reminds me of when I first moved to the United States from Canada and assumed (you know the saying, making an *** out of you and me) that Boxing Day was a holiday . When I asked what everyone was doing on Boxing Day they looked at me as if I was nuts and had no idea what I was talking about. This is not a holiday that is celebrated in the United States and I think it’s a terrible thing…..one needs a day to recover from all of the festivities - it’s just civilized!
Boxing Day is celebrated in Britain, Canada, Australia and New Zealand and most other countries that were once or still are considered part of the commonwealth that is England. The history of the holiday dates back to the 1600’s and there are a number of different stories about it’s inception. I have read that it is derived from the tradition of giving gifts to the servants as they finished their work on Christmas day and allowing them to take the following day off. Other stories are that it is the day that the church alms boxes were opened and the contents distributed to those in need or that it was the day that people boxed up items that they no longer needed and donated them to charity.
This article from the Japan Times offers a funny editorial on how there is a big buildup to Christmas in Japan but no actual Christmas! Bummer….
So, if you have to work on Christmas day make it a point of explaining Boxing Day to your boss and tell him that you would like a gift before you leave and the next day off in honor of the holiday. Since you have invested a lot of time learning and adapting to the culture of Japan wouldn’t it only be fair if they made this one concession to you?
