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Japanese New Year
128 sats \ 2 comments \ @cryotosensei 24 Oct 2024 food_and_drinks
Do you know that Japanese people celebrate Japanese New Year on 1st January? Hi, my name is Mr Heng and I'm glad to present to you about a traditional festival that I celebrate, Japanese New Year.
On the first of January, my family and I woke up, eager to usher in the Year of the Tiger. My wife then prepared a feast for us. Frankly, I didn’t like some of the traditional foods like lotus roots and burdock roots because I found them weird. But I put on a brave front and ate them. I focused on the yummy foods like shrimps and omelette instead.
After breakfast, we set up our laptop because we had a LINE call with her family in Japan. We exchanged New Year greetings and expressed our hopes for 2022 earnestly.
The LINE meeting lasted for an hour. We then went to the Chinese temple near my house. My wife and I are Buddhists, so we prayed to the Goddess of Mercy. I don’t mind sharing with you that I asked the Goddess to make me a rich man. I wonder if she knows anything about Bitcoin though. I want to become The Rich CryptoSensei!
We spent the rest of the day at home, enjoying one another’s company. This was my favourite part, I think. As a true blue Singaporean, I love to lepak and do nothing.
I think it’s important for us to celebrate Japanese New Year because it creates a chance for us to spend time with our loved ones. And of course, my wife won’t nag at me on that day. So yay for marital bliss!
I will end off my presentation now. Thank you for listening. Do you have any questions for me?
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69 sats \ 1 reply \ @south_korea_ln 24 Oct 2024
What is the women's role during this kind of traditional celebration in Japan?
In Korea, women have to do all the cooking/cleaning/etc, while the men eat, drink and pay respects to the elderly. Women here usually don't look forward to these events, and more and more people younger people refuse to participate in them.
In China, in my more limited experience, men are much more involved in the preparations, and it makes for a happier family experience. It is an actual time of celebration.
And what about Singapore?
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115 sats \ 0 replies \ @cryotosensei OP 24 Oct 2024
I haven’t actually spent Japanese New Year with my in-laws, but from other occasions where the extended family gather together, it’s usually my mother-in-law who does everything. My wife will help her. My father-in-law just eats, drinks and gets merry with the relatives. So i guess gender roles are similar to the Koreans.
I won’t say that my father-in-law completely leeches off his wife though. He fixes things around the house and transports the rice to the rice refining machine etc. I think the Japanese have very defined gender roles - not as fluid as us Singaporeans.
I think it’s hard to generalise Singaporeans. I’m sure that the burden of Chinese New Year falls squarely on the wives in some families while both men and women pull their weight in others. Though there has been a trend of having the reunion dinner outside the house at restaurants so that no one has to deal with the hassle of preparing and cleaning up.
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