-The Japanese concept on Valentine's day is very interesting to me. In America if you're given something at any age older than Junior hight, it's typically rather substantial. It's not common to find adult men and women going out of their way to give gifts on valentines day, unless it's really heart-felt. Even if many tiny things are given out, it's not really customary to return the favor, you simply thank the person and move on. In Japan though, it seems much more...necessary to return a gift, even if it's not desired to do so.
-The observation that Japanese gift giving is more obligatory than heart felt seems true in some cases. My personal opinion is that you'll find people giving gifts only because they're publicised everwhere, not just in Japan. To much of the American people, Christmas is only marked by the increase in red and green decorations, the increase in sales and lines in stores, and by santa claus' face posted everywhere. It's hardly a meaningful religious holiday anymore to a large portion of the world.
-If I were part of the Japanese Valentine's day celebration i'd most likely simply wait to be given gifts, then return them, i'm way too poor to buy everyone gifts...that whole college thing is really expensive.
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yay for being poor college students! I agree with you that, at least in america, lots of holidays seem to have lost their meaning. everyone is too concerned with how much money they make.
ReplyDeleteYeah I agree that money is a big part when it comes to gift giving, but as for obligatory gifts for Japanese Valentine's day it is just choclate that won't set you too far back. Also Christmas is still religious for me, but that could be because I'm Mexican
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