Essay

Happy holidays

By David Parmer

Well, here it is, that time of year again. Days are short, nights are long and the year draws to a close. It is the holiday season. You may wonder why I don't write "Christmas Season." Well, that is because, in truth, a lot of different people around the world celebrate the end of the year in different ways.

Here in Japan, more and more people celebrate Christmas, and you can even hear Christmas tunes being played in stores in early November. But Japan's real end-of-the-year celebration is Oshogatsu, New Year's. It is a great time of year where business draws to a close and people turn to home and family, travel to their home towns and take it easy for a few days. The air clears and the sky turns blue again and the city becomes very quiet. There is often snow in the mountains and the same sense of quiet is there, so you can get a real feeling of wilderness.

But winter celebrations are not limited to Christmas and Oshogatsu, no indeed. There are lots and lots of other celebrations at this time of year. Before people started to celebrate Christmas, there were many important winter festivals celebrated by ancient peoples. These celebrations were focused around the winter solstice (Dec. 22 this year) the shortest day of the year. To the ancients the winter solstice was the signal for the sun to return on the following days, and therefore cause for great rejoicing. The Romans had a wild holiday to honor the god Saturn. It lasted from Dec. 17 to 23 and included reveling, gift giving and the use of evergreen trees. The Celtic Druids, poets and philosophers of their time, celebrated the winter solstice — like many other pagan peoples — as the rebirth of the sun. Ancient Germanic people celebrated Yule at this time. They used holly and mistletoe in their celebrations, symbols that still are used today. And from this we get the English word "Yuletide," a secular synonym for the Christmas season.

Here are just a few more festivals celebrated at this time of year. The Jewish people celebrate Hanukah, the festival of lights, which commemorates their victory over their enemies. Recently African Americans have started to celebrate Kwanza, a cultural festival starting Dec. 26 to commemorate their heritage and values. There is even a Buddhist holiday, Rohatsu, on Dec. 8 to mark the day when Siddhartha Gautama was enlightened and became the Buddha.

With all of these holidays, how do you wish people well? How do you tell them you hope they are healthy, happy and prosperous at the end of this year? For a long time, many Christmas cards have included the generic message "Season's Greetings." And recently many people have been using the phrase "Happy Holidays." It seems, though, that a majority of Americans still prefer the traditional greeting.

But when I consider all the people celebrating their own holidays, and the cultural diversity involved, I will have to go with "Happy Holidays" or "Season's Greetings." But for all you traditionalists, all right: Felice Navidad. For the rest of you: Happy Holidays!

Shukan ST: Dec. 15, 2006

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