More Than Lovers, Less Than Friends - Vol. 3 Ch. 29

[Cyromantik]

Japs have a really distorted image of what Christmas is.

It's entirely fueled by marketing. Imagine, for instance a culture with no traditional root for Christmas, Valentine's or Halloween, but the Disney co. and their cohorts of toy and confectioner industry magnates introduce these holidays with culture-ingraining strategies that boost sales and keep books in the black. That's pretty much what happened. Christmas is a time for couples to enjoy illumination parks like Bosche Gardens and eat KFC with Christmas Cake for dessert.

I too want to bask in the sweetness, but my jaded eye picked up on a bugbear of mine: "Only Japan Has 4 Seasons". Even after living here for a good decade this assumption still drives me a little crazy.

 

[Cyromantik]

Right, because we have the true image of what Christmas actually is, a pagan festivity(Saturnalia, Yule) that consists in gathering with people you haven't seen in ages you call "family", gifts, consumerism and drinking til you blackout, with the excuse that it's all about celebrating Jesus Christ, when he wasn't even born during winter and let's be honest, nobody actually thinks about Jesus during these days.

Can't forget the solstice too! Laplanders AKA the Sámi people for example have some lovely Winter Solstice traditions.