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Dear Language Enthusiast,
Welcome to the latest edition of our online Japanese newsletter. I trust you will find
it interesting, informative and helpful in honing your Japanese skills.
With the holidays fast approaching, it is only natural that our thoughts turn to joyous
gatherings filled with family, friends...and food! Hence, we have chosen "Food and
Wine" as the theme for this month's newsletter. Food, sake, and their enjoyment are
at the heart of Japanese life. I think you'll find that the following article will satisfy
your "appetite" for greater understanding of Japanese and culture.
Sincerely,
Transparent Language
www.transparent.com
In English:
Winter is a time of holidays around the world: Hanukah, Christmas, Kwanzaa, New Years,
to name a few. Different cultures celebrate in different ways, but most often when people
gather to celebrate, they gather to eat.
For much of the Christian world, the pinnacle of the holiday season is Christmas dinner.
This is a time when families gather together and share a great feast on Christmas Eve,
usually after Midnight Mass. In France this meal is called "le reveillon."
Depending on the regional culinary traditions, the menu may consist of goose, buckwheat
cakes with sour cream, turkey with chestnuts or for the Parisians, oysters and Foie Gras.
A cake called La Buche de Noel, which is shaped like a log, is also eaten as part of le
reveillon. Champagne, the bubbly, festive drink produced in the Champagne region, will be
enjoyed at both the Christmas and New Year celebrations.
Fat Stomach is the name given to Christmas Eve in Germany because it is said that those
who do not eat well on this evening will be haunted by demons during the night. So Germans
enjoy many dishes such as suckling pig, macaroni salad, white sausage and other regional
specialties. Marzipan, spice bars and a moist, heavy bread filled with fruit are served
for dessert.
In Italy, many families enjoy eel or other types of fish, pork sausage covered with
lentils or turkey stuffed with chestnuts for their Christmas dinner. Sweets such as
panettone (cake filled with candied fruit), torrone (nougat) and panforte (a rich
gingerbread) are also part of the Christmas celebration. As a rule, Christmas sweets must
be made with nuts and almonds. Italian folklore states that eating nuts aids the fertility
of the earth and helps increase flocks and family.
For Russians, too, Christmas is celebrated with a festive meal. It is usually meatless and
includes a special porridge called kutya. This unique dish is made of wheatberries or
other grains that symbolize hope and long life, as well as honey and poppy seeds that
ensure happiness, success, and untroubled rest. A New Year's Eve celebration will include
a champagne toast and revelry with family and friends.
In the Spanish-speaking world, the Christmas season is celebrated with food as well. In
Spain, the Christmas meal is never eaten before midnight. A family feast features Pavo
Trufado de Navidad (Christmas turkey with truffles; truffles are a rare mushroom found
underground). For dessert, the Spanish enjoy turron, a candy of roasted almonds in caramel
sauce. On Christmas Eve in Mexico, many people attend church and then return home for a
big feast of turkey, chicken, tamales, fruit tea and plenty of sweets. As with most
Mexican celebrations, a piñata is part of the Christmas party. Children try to break the
piñata to gather the candies, fruit and toys inside.
In Brazil, however, the dinner is served before Midnight Mass so, as the legend goes, the
Holy Family can have some while everyone is gone. A popular Christmas meal for Brazilians
consists of turkey, fish and champagne. Because of Brazil's unique multi-cultural
population and European influence it is quite common to find an Italian panettone or a
German stollen as part of the meal as well as many other delicacies from around the world.
For Eastern countries such as Japan and China, the holiday season centers around the New
Year. The New Years celebration, Shogatsu, is the most important and popular holiday in
Japan, lasting for three days. Traditionally the Japanese enjoy a meal of toshikoshi soba
(buckwheat noodles) that symbolize long life. They also eat zoni, a soup containing mochi
(pounded rice), vegetables and fish. Zoni refers to the foods offered to the God of New
Year that are cooked together in a pot and eaten by the entire family during the three day
celebration of the New Year. Otoso, sweetened rice wine, is the traditional drink for the
New Year.
In China, food is served in abundance for the New Year celebration. Many of the foods
enjoyed at this time have special meaning. For example, special cakes called nian-gao are
prepared which serve as a symbol of prosperity for the family. The Chinese also dine on a
twelve-course meal, each course filled with symbolic meaning. One of the courses, fish,
symbolizes surplus, mustard greens (a leafy vegetable) represents longevity, while the
turnip is thought to bring good fortune. The most significant of the foods eaten on New
Year's Eve is the Chinese dumpling that symbolizes wealth because its shape is similar to
the ancient Chinese gold and silver ingots. A coin is cooked into one of the dumplings and
whoever ends up with the coin will be the most successful and luckiest person that year.
In the United States, celebrations vary tremendously from house to house, as the
traditions are derived from other cultures. Some meals include roast beef and popovers or
perhaps turkey, mashed potatoes, cranberry sauce and various other dishes such as green
beans or squash. Cookies and pies are enjoyed for dessert. A popular holiday drink is
Eggnog, which is made with eggs, milk, sugar and sometimes rum. Here in New England a
traditional dish is Lumberjack Pie that is made with a mashed potato crust filled with
meats, onion and cinnamon. New Year's Eve in the United States is celebrated with family
and friends and usually ushered in with a champagne toast.
We hope that your holiday celebrations are festive and that that we have satisfied your
"appetite" for a greater understanding of global culture. Best wishes for a
happy and healthy 2000 from all of us here at Transparent
Language.
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