Celebrations growing up were often met with feasts. Even when times were hard and money was scarce, my parents did everything they could to make the holidays feel memorable and lively. Homecooked meals took days of preparation, various ingredients cooking individually on the stove and coming together later onto to make different dishes like Southern chicken n’ dressing and sweet potato casserole.
Since moving to Japan, I haven’t had that style of cooking in years. It’s been at least seven or eight years or so since I ate such a large feast with all the fixings. My first apartment didn’t have the counter space or an oven. My second apartment had ample amounts of counter space but our oven was the size of a small microwave. Our stove only had two working burners so any sort of meal we prepared had to be quite small.
Even after getting a bigger oven (though by most country’s standards it’s still quite small) I haven’t made any attempts to cook a meal fit for the holidays. I’m slowly coming to terms with that, finding other ways to celebrate and enjoying the way Japan does holiday meals.
Fried Chicken and Christmas Cake
At every コンビニ(konbini; convenience store) and every supermarket, you can find fliers featuring fried chicken and a variety of cake for Christmas. Fried chicken and roasted chicken are so popular you might find yourself needing to make a reservation early on to order some.
Thanks to a very successful marketing campaign back in the 70s, KFC is a favorite pick around Christmas time. With your order of chicken, you can get a commemorative bucket and plate that’s been specially designed for the current year. You might even see Colonel Sanders dressed up outside as Santa Clause.
It’s nowhere near the feast from my childhood but I do love that we can order take out, relax in the warm comfort of our home, gather around the こたつ(kotatsu; a heated table), and just enjoy the holiday together. There’s no frantic cook chaos. Just good food among friends and family.
New Year’s Osechi
Ready-to-eat おせち(osechi) which is a beautifully decorated meal into ornate boxes, is a Japanese tradition that began over a thousand years ago around the Heian period (794-1185). Usually created at home over a course of days, it’s presented in beautiful lacquered boxes as the beauty of the meal is just as important as the flavor.
I have no plans for now to make osechi by hand as it can be a very time consuming meal. In fact, many of the people I talked to and asked, said they never make it themselves. They prefer to order the meal around October or November to have it delivered in before New Years Eve. Places like convenience store, supermarkets, shopping malls offer catalogs featuring meals of different sizes and variations of food.
Certain items hold special meanings and are eaten to improve the coming year’s luck and fortune. You can learn more about it from Savvy Tokyo’s post that goes into depth about many of the food items.
I love this because it reminds me of Southern New Year’s meals and how every item we ate also held a special meaning. Call it superstitious but we warned that these items were necessary for a good new year!
Southern New Year’s Meal
Ham or pork is meant to represent us moving forward or making progress. It was believed that pigs didn’t walk backwards and continued searching the ground for food in a forward motion. This idea of always going forward and never giving up stays in our minds.
Black-eyed peas are supposed to bring us good luck in the coming year. During the Civil War, the peas were seen by northern soldiers as inedible so when they destroyed the food supply, black-eyed pea remained untouched. This meant that it was the only remaining food for civilians to eat. They have also been associated with coins, symbolizing fortune and are often paired with leafy greens.
Collard Green or Mustard Greens symbolize wealth and fortune. Because of their green, foldable shape, they represent foldable paper money. During New Year’s I was often told to eat as much greens as possible so we would be rich in the new year. My family also opted greens out for cabbage some years.
Cornbread is a staple in the South. For it’s golden color it also represents wealth and fortune. One of the traditions is to use the leftover stock from cooking greens called potlikker to dip cornbread in. This soup is often flavored from the greens, bits of ham, and spices from the cooking process. It’s a broth that the Enslaved and poor families relied on in the south.
Tomatoes are somewhat heart-shaped and bright red, symbolizing a healthy body. Often cooked with other items like greens, they’re eaten for good health in the coming year. My family often cut up slices of fresh tomato with salt and pepper as a side dish with the rest of the meal.
Closing Thoughts
I love how traditions grow and change over time. They’re rarely ever stagnant and as new generations take over or modern life gets in the way, we find ourselves making new traditions.
What’s something you and your family do now that’s different from your childhood? I’d love to know!
Leave a Reply