Issue #7

This is the third country in which I have spent Christmas, the first being Canada and then Japan and the only thing that the holidays share in these three countries is the date, December 25th.

For more than a decade preceding my move to Yamagata my ´traditional´ Christmas celebration began with Christmas Eve at the Worthington´s which included walking the half block to the Anglican church to sing carols and then returning to their warm and beautifully decorated home to eat, drink and be merry. Gifts were exchanged but not opened. The opening of presents had to wait until Christmas morning. In the wee small hours before dawn I would return to my house and sleep until noon. Upon waking, I would have coffee and open my presents and then get dressed to go to Zoë´s. The party she hosted all those years was the highlight of the season for many people and we would eat and drink some more with the party finally winding down well after midnight. I would spend boxing day at Gail´s apartment. It was a ´girls´only day attended by Gail´s mother, sister and niece. I was an honourary member of the clan on this special day and we would play card games and, yes you guessed it, eat and drink. With the exception of a couple of hours spent singing at St.Judes, the holidays were a secular celebration for me.

In Japan, Christmas is a secular event. There is no holiday and I worked every Christmas Day for the 5 years that I lived there. Christmas Eve is the largest ´date´night of the year, much like New Year´s Eve is in Canada, and the restaurants were crowded with young couples. Japanese families that celebrate Christmas do so by eating chicken for dinner (you have to pre-order your KFC for that day) and Christmas cake. This is not the heavy fruitcake that Canadians call Christmas cake. It is like birthday cake, complete with candles, but instead of "Happy Birthday" written in icing on the cake, there is "Merry Christmas". Small children are given a toy or other treat. The really big family time is New Year´s and that is when the shops are closed and everyone is home with their loved ones.

Here in Spain there are two really important days in the 12 days of Christmas. The celebrations begin with Nochebuena on the evening of December 24th. A feast consisting of seafood, fish, ham, cheese and cava (Spanish champagne) is enjoyed and there is music and dancing. The centrepiece of the decorations is not a tree but a nativity scene called a belén in Spanish. On January 6th, the Epiphany, is Three Kings Day. This is the time the children have been really looking forward to because the Three Kings will bring presents to the children just like they brought to the baby Jesus. There is a parade in every town with candy being tossed to the crowd. Christmas is definately not a secular holiday in Spain.