Re: CHAT: Gobble (was: CHAT: cross-culturation)

Adam wrote:

>Oh, the Japanese may not be Christians but they do like Christmas.  Go fig.
>Correct me if I'm wrong, but isn't Christmas a holiday in Japan?
It wasn't a legal holiday when I was there (one did get the emperor's
birthday on the 23rd, but had to work on the 25th, ptui!), but
streets and malls had all the trappings of the holiday. It kind of
felt like a sort of Valentine's Day. You were supposed to take your
main squeeze out for a romantic dinner at a restaurant, give a
romantic gift, and snuggle. TV played lots of romantic Xmas dramas,
shot in that Doris Day, vaseline-smeared-on-the-lens soft focus. And
a couple of romantic pop ballads about spending time together at Xmas
were churned out each year. Family-oriented types would gather around
the ubiquitous Christmas cake, eat, and it was over. Dec. 26, all the
street decorations were gone, killing any residual afterglow you
might want to feel about the day.

>  It was
>here in Taiwan till this year.[1]  I'm gonna have to teach on Christmas Day.
>  Major bummer.  Guess how much book work's gonna happen THAT day!
Yeah, working on Xmas is a definite suckeroo. That's what I liked
about Taiwan. That Constitution Day and Christmas just *happened* to
be the same day was great (weren't Chiang and Madame Chiang Xtians?).
Dismayed and a little surprised to hear that holiday has fallen by
the wayside.

>[1] A whole bunch of holidays got scrapped when they went from the 5 1/2
>day-every-other-week workweek to the 5 day workweek.
Just can't seem to relax, can they? That change was implemented while
I was there (at the same time it would have kicked in as a work
benefit at my office after I'd been there for a year. Oh well). TV
interviews had John Q. Public Wang up in arms, "O tempora! O mores!
Too much free time! What will become of the children?! We are at the
brink of the abyss!" I think one minor holiday (on a Friday or
Monday) bit the dust while I was there (since, horror of horrors, we
wouldn't want to have a *three*-day weekend).  Then again, I suppose
two whole days of non-stop Taiwanese TV variety shows would be enough
to push anyone over the edge.

Kou