RHIANNA MCKENZIE
DECEMBER has always been filled with celebratory events for me and my family.
They begin early in the month with my little sister’s birthday, followed shortly by my parents’ anniversary and a few others in between, because who doesn’t love a good Christmas wedding?
In 2008, my nephew was born on Christmas Eve. He’ll be 16 this year.
After spending the day with him, my mother and I would spend the night preparing for Christmas the following day as we would host friends and family every year for lunch, then head to my mother’s home in the Heights of Aripo for house-to-house paranging.
Ever since moving to Japan, December has not held the same joy for me as it once did.
Growing up, I would hear my relatives who live in the US talk about how hard the holidays are for them and how much they miss being home for Christmas.
Until now, I had never realised how privileged I was to experience and participate in the season, as it never once occurred to me what it would be like to live in a place that didn’t celebrate it.
There are so many wonders to behold in Japan, but nothing will ever compare to the joy of Christmas in Trinidad and Tobago.
[caption id="attachment_1128074" align="alignnone" width="1024"] Rhianna McKenzie in Japan. -[/caption]
Growing up in a Christian family meant Christmas was celebrated, first and foremost, as a religious holiday. So we would go to church on both Christmas and New Year’s Eve.
Even now that I am not as religious as I once was, the season still holds great value to me as a time to spend with family.
As a minority religion, Christians make up just about 1-1.5 per cent of the population in Japan and Christmas is therefore not recognised as a holiday, but just another work day. Christmas, for the most part, is a western import, and many of the traditions surrounding the holiday are interpretations of what the Japanese believe Christmas is like in the West, based on what they’ve read or seen in movies. Stories of Santa Claus and his magic reindeer are popular, as are some old Christmas movies.
No ham, no turkey, but...
One of the greatest culture shocks I’ve experienced here is the Christmas KFC bucket!
Most people I’ve spoken to here were unaware of turkey as a seasonal tradition in most western countries. A few of my students believe a turkey is a very big chicken.
The KFC Christmas bucket was first advertised in the 1970s by then-manager Takeshi Okawara at the first KFC outlet in Nagoya Prefecture.
As the story goes, Okawara overheard a conversation between two foreigners at his store who talked about how much they missed having turkey for Christmas. He introduced the Christmas bucket, hoping it would be a suitable substitute for foreigners living in or visiting Japan in December. Okawara also advertised fried chicken to Japanese consumers – it was not yet very popular in the region – as a traditional western Christmas dish.
After years of heavy marketing, the KFC bucket has become a Christmas staple in most Japanese homes. The bucket inc
