At Christmas

On Christmas Eve, I passed our local shopping center, and saw many people forming looooong queues to buy... Christmas cake.  Yes, in Japan we have "Christmas cake," which is an essential part of Christmas for most Japanese.

It was not until when I was over 40 that I realized that, for average Japanese, Christmas is the day to put up Christmas tree and eat chicken roast and Christmas cake, and that they don't give a damn at the fact that what they think are indispensable to celebrate Christmas are actually accessories and have little to do with the essence of Christmas. 
I had assumed that people were just taking advantage of capitalism and the age of plenty, knowing the true meaning of Christmas.  But, No, they just didn't care.

When they import seasonal events from foreign culture, Japanese people tend to pick out only the things they feel "nice" and often turn their eyes away from their essence.
Valentine's Day is the day for women to buy chocolates for men (or, nowadays, more expensive ones for themselves), and Halloween is the day to wear strange costumes on the street.

This habit of turning one's eyes away from the essence of the matter reminds me of the fact that our people have failed to look straight at our defeat in the war in 1945.  Have we not faced up with our past because it is our habit not to look at the essence of the matter, or we tend to pick out only the accessories of events because we haven't come to terms with the defeat just yet?  I don't know which is which, but I cannot help thinking that there is some connection.

In the Christmas Eve service that I attended today, they read Luke 2:1-21.
This part is always read at Christmas, and I almost remember the verses.  (well, if you have ever sung Messaiah, you learn it by heart)  The most impressive verse to me since my childhood is"because there was no room for them in the inn."  Christmas for me has been the time to be questioned of what I have done to "the smallest of these" rather than pure celebration. 

I just made small contribution to WFP and UNHCR, thinking of Middle Eastern families deprived of the right to leading peaceful life, hoping His favor rests on my action.

Merry Christmas!