Oh no, it's Christmas!

The reason for the season

Back at home, the toy stores are running wild; just so in Japan, where the jewelry stores and electronics shops are also seeing heavy holiday action, with stark, frenzied crowds of men, women and children securing very shiny, very expensive items in time for December 25th. The obvious questions arise: Why is this happening, again? And why is it happening in Japan, of all places?

It's a long, winding road from the ancient Roman holiday of Saturnalia to the earring display case at the local Ponte Vecchio; suffice to say that the histories of the date (December 25th, taken from the aforementioned Roman holiday), the trees (taken from pagan tradition in Europe), the gift- giving (popularized during the Middle Ages) and jolly, gift-giving Sinterklaas (from the original Dutch; the name would later change to you-know-what, whose red- suited depiction Coca-Cola would utilize and help to become exponentially more popular) make for very interesting bedtime reading.

Gift-giving on December 25th was popularized during the Middle Ages, though put into practice much earlier than that (those Romans, again). The gifts of the Catholic St. Nicholas, as well as the Bible's very famed Gifts of the Magi – you know, gold, frankincense and myrrh – to the infant Jesus, took giftgiving out of its pagan roots and made it far more acceptable to the early Christian church. Add several hundred years' worth of Christianity's proliferation and profit-hungry merchants all too eager to promote gift-giving, and one has the Christmas Season, and the Christmas Season in Japan, and the crowd at Ponte Vecchio.

Locally, gift-giving doesn't just stop with Christmas, of course: there's chugen (the annual gift given during the summer), oseibo (chugen's end-of-year version), otoshidama (New Year's money given to children), Valentine's Day (locally, women give presents to men), White Day (men give presents to the women who give them presents) and innumerable other gift- or money-giving events during the year (think celebrations: weddings, new babies, before or after moving, etc.). Internationally, of course, giftgiving also doesn't begin with Christmas: though celebrated nowhere near on the scale of Xmas, Eid, Diwali and Hannukah cause Muslim, Hindu and Jewish parents, respectively, no small degree of distress.

As for why people continually put themselves through this year after year, a handy answer may be found in the Japanese word giri, which, unlike nebulous terms like genki or gambare, translates quite easily (everyone understands "duty" and "obligation," after all).

Commonly referenced locally in that wonderful phrase "giri choco" ("obligation chocolate"; the confectioneries female office workers find themselves unwillingly buying for male office superiors before Valentine's Day), giri may well be what drives gift-giving in Japan, and in every other nation and culture in the world.

Much like the Japanese family that chokes down osechi ryori (the somewhat bland – admit it! – traditional food served every New Year), for no other reason than that's simply what has to be done every year, the giri spirit, annually, sees innumerable Christmas enthusiasts throw off every shackle of financial restraint and environmental concern, maxing out each credit card, giving and receiving items they neither particularly need nor actually have space in their houses for, doing hell-bent-forleather shopping because that's simply what has to be done every year (and, also, that bit about the birth of Christ).

There is, however, the notion that even the things people "have to do every year" don't necessarily have to be done every year – and that gift-giving wouldn't be done every year if deep down, despite the stress, people didn't actually enjoy it just a little bit. After all, year by year, home-cooked osechi is increasingly less popular, while the shopping crowd in Shinsaibashi has never seemed bigger.

Text: Jeff Lo • Photos: Rob Banas