From: bliss-sf4ever@dslextreme.com   
      
   On 06/04/2014 08:00 AM, Kenneth M. Lin wrote:   
   > The winter recess in Japanese schools is only two weeks and they give   
   > you one week off this year and another week the next year so you have a   
   > whole week to enjoy New Year.  This means that you have school until   
   > Christmas Eve and they still don't have the whole month of Christmas   
   > "shopping" season like America because they don't celebrate Thanksgiving   
   > over there.  (And I'd be disturbed if they start celebrating Thanksgiving.)   
      
   	As far as I am concerned that is more sensible than the amount of time   
   spent on Xmas a commercial holiday in the USA.   
   	As for the Thanksgiving that is fine.  They do the same things   
   as North Americans do only at different holidays.  Over New Year Holiday   
   the return to their home towns as Americans attempt to assemble their   
   extended families during TG,  TG is an North American holiday intended   
   to celebrate good harvests and commemorate the early successes of the   
   NA colonist.  I think the Japanese have several holidays to reconnect   
   with ancestral spirits as well as individual observances.   
      
   	So Japanese holidays and celebrations are important to a nation   
   with about 5X the real history as the European-Americans have.  Of   
   course we get to absorb the history of the nations who did and did not   
   contribute colonists to NA.  For cultural monuments we substitute the   
   natural wonders of North American such as the Grand Canyon of the   
   Colorado.   
      
   	Our history is short but in the last 100 years or so our decadence is   
   unsurpassed while largely unacknowledged by the establishment.   
      
   	bliss   
      
   >   
   > "Bobbie Sellers"  wrote in message news:lmgbs2$adn$2@dont-email.me...   
   >   
   >  And commercialization is bad because someone makes a profit?   
   >   
   > I like a lot of the Japanese customs like buying gifts for friends and   
   > associated while traveling.  In the USA we are lucky to   
   > get postcards and home travel movies or even photos or slides.  I am   
   > sure that one of the purposes of the school trip is to incalculate   
   > the gift buying behavior.   
   >   
   > Valentine's Day is not taken too seriously because we don't make the   
   > distinction between gifts given to respected people and gifts   
   > given to loved ones.   This cuts the sales down terrifically.  If we   
   > had to come up with gifts for co-workers and friends would not sales   
   > expand?   
   >   
   > But we reverse that in our Xmas celebrations and must provide   
   > a gift for nearly everyone we know, while in Japan only lovers exchange   
   > gifts the last I knew at the Christmas season.   
   >   
   > We forget the spiritual importance of many holidays such as   
   > Halloween or the Eve of All Saints which is not forgotten on the   
   > equivalent Japanese holiday.   
   > In addition to the specifically Japanese holidays they celebrate   
   > the natural cycle with holidays for Solstices and Equinoctial events   
   > All this seems very good to me but of course I don't live in   
   > Japan so I could be wrong.   
   >   
   > bliss   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)