What Do Christmas And Japanese New Year Have In Common?

6. Giving Gifts

The giving of gifts for special occasions is an important tradition in Western cultures, and Christmas is the biggest festival of all for gift-giving. The Japanese exchange gifts as well at New Year, but this is relatively downplayed. What’s far more significant, at least for children, is the giving of otoshidama, or money presented in a special little envelope. Money has always been the primary form of gift in Japan so this isn’t much of a surprise. By contrast, giving money as a gift in Britain and other Western countries can be frowned upon in certain cases and has to be done with care. This could be because the Shinto religion traditionally has a positive view of money and wealth, while in Christianity, money can be seen as “the root of all evil.”

Two other things surprised me about otoshidama when I first learned about it. One is the amount given – usually it’s quite considerable, and children may receive the equivalent of hundreds of dollars over New Year. The other is that in Wales (I’m half-Welsh), there is a very similar tradition of giving money on New Year’s Day, called calennig. It’s usually a pound or two though, nowhere near as much as Japanese otoshidama…