WinterHoliday
Activity
PackThe Japan Society| Education
Resources| education@japansociety.org.uk
www.japansociety.org.uk© TheJapan Society(2023).
This pack uses illustrations from|Irasutoya.

Christmas in JapanChristmas is pronounced kurisumasu in Japanese. If you are in Japan at Christmas
time, some things will look the same as they do in the UK. For example, you will see
lots of Christmas decorations and hear Christmas songs or carols played in shops.
However, celebrations in Japan are quite different to celebrations in the UK.
Japanese people may exchange gifts and put up Christmas trees, but there is no
religious significance behind the festivities because most people are not Christians
in Japan. Also, 25 December is not a national holiday so shops and restaurants arestill open and most people will go to work or school as normal!

© 2011, Bohnenhase© Cecil Lee

On Christmas Eve, family and friends might get together to eat Christmas cake, butin Japan it is a type of sponge cake decorated with strawberries and cream rather
than a fruit cake like you might see in the UK.
Christmas Day is seen as a romantic occasion – similar to Valentine’s Day in the UK,
and it is common to see people going on dates around Christmas time. New Year’s isa much more important holiday in Japan and people will spend the day celebratingwith family.
Why not make some origami Christmas decorations to display at home or put up on
your Christmas tree?

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Holiday Origami Challenge
You will need:• origami paper• pencil or penCandy Cane
2. Fold up.

3. Flip over.

5. Fold down.

1. Fold paper in half
to make a crease thenunfold.

4. Roll up by foldingin the dotted line.

6. Turn 90ocounterclockwise.

7. Fold down
and backwards.
8. Done!

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Santa Claus

1. Fold paper in half
to make a crease thenunfold and cut in half.

2. Fold one of thesmaller halvesin half to make acrease.

4. Fold backwards.

5. Fold up.

8. Fold down to thecrease line fromstep 7.

9. Fold down.

6. Fold up.

3. Fold down
approximately 1/3of the paper fromthe top.

7. Fold up to makea crease and thenunfold.

10. Finally, draw theeyes and nose anddone!

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1. Fold horizontally to makea crease, unfold, then folddown to make a triangle.

Reindeer

2. Fold up to
make a crease andunfold.

3. Fold up to
make a crease andunfold.

4. Fold down,
approximately 1/3of the top half.

5. Fold in fromboth sides,
approximately
1/3 of the width,
to make a crease.

7. Fold in again,using the creaseline from step 5
as a guide.

10. Fold
bottom layer
backwards.

6. Fold in, using
the dotted line asa guide, and line
up the edge withthe crease linefrom step 5.

8. Flip over.

11. Fold down.

9. Fold top
layer up.

12. Finish bydrawing theeyes and nose.

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SocietyEducation
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The Zodiac Animals
In Japan, people associate each year with one of twelve zodiac animals, and the cycle
begins again every twelve years. The zodiac system originally comes from China andthere is a legend that explains why the animals are in this particular order.

The Legend
God wanted to create a zodiac system with twelve animals and invited everyone toa race on New Year’s Day to decide their order in the system. The ox was the slowestof all the animals, so he got up very early so he could start before the break of dawn.
The clever rat knew this and hid on the ox’s back the entire way, letting him do all
the work.
When they reached God, the rat jumped off the ox’s back and finished in first place,making the ox second! The next ten animals to arrive were: the tiger, the rabbit, thedragon, the snake, the horse, the sheep, the monkey, the rooster, the dog and finallythe boar, the last animal in the zodiac system.
There was one more animal in the story that never even made it to the race - the cat.
That is because the rat lied and told her that the race would be held on the second
day of the New Year. It is said that the cat still hasn’t forgotten about it and that is
why cats always chase rats when they see one!

Animal Sounds
Did you know that animal sounds in Japanese can often be different to the ones we
use in English? See if you can guess each animal with the sound it makes in Japanese.

a. wan wane. moo moob. meh mehf. heheenc. buu buu

g. ookee ookee

d. chuu chuu

h. kokekokko

Answers: rat, d; dog, a; sheep, b; boar, c; monkey, g; rooster, h; ox, e; and horse, f.

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osho gatsu

Kanji Characters
In Japanese, these two kanji characters 正月 mean New Year. The character お isusually before 正月.* These kanji characters 元日 mean ‘New Year’s Day’.
Can you write the characters? Trace the characters by following the stroke order,
then try to write them on your own.

正月 元日
正月 元日
shogatsu means New Year

①②④

①③⑤②

③④

ganjitsu means New Year’s Day

①

②①②

③

③④④

* It is common in Japan to add お in front of words to make it sound moreformal and polite.

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New Year Postcards 年賀状
In Japan, everyone sends New Year’s Postcards called nengajo to their family andfriends for New Year’s. Unlike Christmas cards which can arrive any time before
Christmas Day, nengajo are all kept by the post office and delivered on New
Year’s Day itself.
Around the end of each year, you will see a lot of nengajo for sale for thecoming new year with all kinds of beautiful designs. The front of thepostcard has a New Year’s greeting, a space for a personal message
as well as a seasonal design or that year’s zodiac animal. The back isnormally for the address only.
personal hand written message

良いお正月すごしてる？
ゆっくり休んでまた１年がんばろう！
昨年よりもっといい年になりますように中区
鹿谷町
１丁目
30番
１

静岡
県浜松
市
中区
鹿谷
町

鈴木太郎
様

name and address of recipient

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Activity: Write your own Nengajo!
Why not try to write your own New Year’s message this year on a nengajo? You canuse one of the templates provided or create your own!

Template 1The Japan
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Japan|Society(2023)| www.japansociety.org.uk| education@japansociety.org.uk

Template 2© The Japan Society (2023) | www.japansociety.org.uk | education@japansociety.org.uk

2022

2022

2022

Template 3

The Japan
SocietyEducation
Resources| education@japansociety.org.uk| www.japansociety.org.uk© The
Japan|Society(2023)| www.japansociety.org.uk| education@japansociety.org.uk