Celebrating Christmas and New Years in Japan

By: Ace Dispo, Web Editor

When you think of Christmas, do you picture drinking hot chocolate while watching holiday movies, or waiting for Santa on Christmas Eve and opening presents in the morning? For people in Japan, the holiday season is celebrated by eating KFC with strawberry cake for dessert, watching mesmerizing light shows, and starting the new year by visiting shrines and hunting for lucky bags.

Kentucky for Christmas

Throughout Japan, it is customary to celebrate Christmas by eating KFC. When KFC came to Japan in the 1970s, it launched a campaign in 1974 that, according to the official KFC website, involved “selling a bucket of KFC’s famous fried chicken along with a bottle of wine and suggesting it be used for a Christmas party that wasn’t just for kids, but for grownups too.” The campaign reportedly began after a customer couldn’t “get turkey in Japan, so I have no choice but to celebrate Christmas with Kentucky Fried Chicken,” highlighting both the scarcity of turkey and the appeal of KFC during the season.

Christmas Illumination

The first light show in Japan took place in Osaka in 1903. According to Japanese snack box company Sakura Co., it was described as “featuring approximately 6,700 lights,” with a “glowing fountain, with its five colors, amazed visitors and made evenings feel even more magical in Japan during winter.” The beauty of the winter lights helped create the long-lasting tradition of watching illuminations during Christmas. 

New Year Shrine Visits

To start the new year, many participate in “Hatsumode,” the first shrine visit of the year. Some visitors show up in kimonos as they pass through the torii gates to the main shrine. Once there, they ring a bell and make a petition for the upcoming months. Other shrine activities include writing a wish or goal for the year on an “ema”, a small wooden tablet, along with purchasing an “omikuji,” a fortune slip for the year.

Lucky Bags

Around the New Year, it is common for companies to sell “Fukubukuro,” or “Lucky Bags.” The Japanese National Tourism Organization describes these bags as “literal shopping bags filled with random assortments of goods.” Consumers are drawn to purchasing these bags for the prospect of receiving goods worth more than what they paid for. The tradition dates back to the Meiji and Edo periods in Japan, where textile shops would sell low-priced bags of spare fabric to clear their inventory for the year, sparking a fierce competition among stores to sell off excess inventory at a low price. Today, the idea remains the same, surprising consumers hunting for discounted goods.