Advent Calendar Door 7 💫

Christmas in Japan 🇯🇵

Did you know that next to Germany, Japan is one of the biggest growing markets in Wolt? That is why we thought we take a look at how our colleagues at the other side of the world celebrate Christmas! Our colleague Wiebke used to live in Japan and offered to tell us more about Japanese customs and tradtion during that time of the year!🎅🏼

Christmas is in Japan not an official holiday, but more of a commercial event that a lot of people started to celebrate thanks to American popculture - in their own way of course! One of the most impressive sights are the lights and beautiful decorations in a lot of cities.

Take for example the Luminarie Light Festival in Kobe where thousands of lights decorate the main sights of the city or the "traditional German" Christmas Market in Osaka!

Of course, these events attract a lot of people - especially families and couples - the latest is usually the main demography that likes to celebrate Christmas in Japan. Christmas is often a day for couples! And if you are not in a relationship? Then it's the time to celebrate with your friends!

Unlike in Germany, Christmas is not an event that is being celebrated with the family - Japanese people usually start travelling home for the new year's celebration instead.

So what do people eat during Christmas? Highly popular is fried chicken - made known by the first Kentucky fired chicken restaurant in Japan that advertised their fried chicken as an "American-tradition" in the 1970ies. Oddly enough, this interesting interpretation of an American Christmas dinner stuck with the people, and getting fried chicken on Christmas became a real challenge due to its high demand!

Another typical Christmas-food in Japan is the strawberry shortcake! Sweets often equalling prosperity and luck with the existing food limitations during wartimes, the cake became a symbol of entering better times when the war ended and people were able to afford more. Also of course having a cake matching not only the colors of Santa, but also the Japanese national flag helped!

Do you have any uncommon foods you like to eat every year to a certain event? 🍓🎂

(Copyright Picture: http://empower-1.com/archives/4162)

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