How Asian people celebrate Christmas

Christmas is the time for celebrations, gifts, fun, family, wishes, and prayers. Although, it’s a traditional western holiday and is usually celebrated among the Christians. Since the world is becoming a global village, Christmas is now celebrated in every part of the world, including some Asian countries. Of course, Christmas cultures vary in those Asian countries.

 

 

Despite religious differences, the Westernized version of Christmas has already been adopted and ingrained into local culture throughout much of Asia. Although very few people in Asia consider themselves Christian, the holiday of Christmas is enjoyed by people from far and wide in Asian countries. Christmas decor and traditions are everywhere in Asia stretched from communist Hanoi to the beaches of India [1]. No matter the reason for celebrating, it still became a holiday in Asia. Merchants and the big shopping malls certainly love to capitalize on the Christmas holiday. Stores hold big sales and sometimes even special holiday markets are set up since people always tend to buy more things in the holiday season. I have to admit, Christmas is too commercial, at least in China.  

 

 

 

 

Mostly, Christmas is not a national holiday in Asia. Schools will never close in China, but they often close in Japan on Christmas Day. Fried chicken is eaten on Christmas day because people want to be much more “western-style”. Thus, KFC and McDonald‘s are busy in many Asian countries. In fact, the food is in such high demand during this time, that a certain American fast food chain takes pre-orders of their popular fried chicken as early as November [2]. Instead of a cookie or pie in Western, there is Christmas cake in Japan. In Japan, the cake is not the usual fruitcake that’s typically eaten in European and American countries. Instead, kurisumasu keeki (Christmas cake in Japan) is usually a kind of sponge cake-based strawberry shortcake [2].

 

 

Sometimes, in many Asian countries like China, Christians still face restrictions against western-style holidays. As a huge number of people celebrate a commercialized and secular Christmas, the religious practice begins to be tightly regulated by the government that aims to avoid chaos. When the government began allowing the more commercialized version of Christmas to prosper starting in the 1990s, it affected, deliberate or not, overshadowing the Western-style version, reducing the holiday’s religious connotations [3]. In a way, the more popular Christmas gets in China, the less Christian it becomes. People know less and less about Jesus, they only care about Santa who is treated as the holiday’s mascot.

 

 

Reference:

[1]https://www.tripsavvy.com/christmas-in-asia-1458350
[2]https://livejapan.com/en/article-a0000770/
[3]https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/worldviews/wp/2012/12/24/seven-fascinating-facts-about-christmas-in-china/?utm_term=.f95cc32b895d