Hello, and welcome to the History of Japan podcast, Episode 35, Christmas and New Year's.

It's that time of year again.

The snow is falling beautifully, the starry winter sky is out, and everyone is full of good

holiday cheer.

Or, if you're me, the Seattle skies are gray, there's a constant drizzle, and you're

still trying to figure out

why everyone is so excited about this Christmas thing. I'm not saying Hanukkah is better

or anything, but we get to eat donuts, just saying. Anyway, I figure it's the perfect time of

year to wrap up 2013 with a quick look at two Western holiday traditions and the way they've

been imported into Japan. After all, I don't know about you, but I could certainly use something

a little bit lighter after those two episodes on Okinawa. Anyway, despite having a very small

Christian population, about 1% of Japan is Christian, and a traditional history of

using the Chinese lunar calendar rather than the Western solar one, Christmas and New

years are big holidays in Japan, so let's talk about how that happened.

Let's start with Christmas.

The first record we have of Christmas being celebrated as a holiday in Japan comes

from 1552, when Portuguese Jesuits held a Christmas Mass for some Japanese Catholic converts.

From then on, the Catholic establishment in Japan would hold masses for Christian believers,

though always with Europeans officiating. However, once the

Tokugawa came to power, it became illegal for Christians to openly celebrate Christmas or anything else.

If you'll recall, the Tokugawa Shogunate banned Christianity for fear that it would lead to

anti-government subversion.

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