How is Halloween celebrated in Japan?

At least as far as Trick or Treating goes.

Couldn't tell you about trick or treating (I doubt that part ever caught on), but I did notice 2 years ago that shops carry Halloween decorations and stuff like the ones in the U.S. I was surprised to see it.

This reminds me of my friend's experience her first time in the U.S. during college years. She had always wanted to go to an American Halloween party and upon starting her freshman year, she asked her roommate if she knew of a good Halloween party. Keep in mind that while she studied English in Japan for many years, her pronunciation (by her own admission) was very rough. Upon hearing the request, her roommate looked perturbed and was evasive about the subject. With each repeated request, the roommate grew more and more agitated. Finally, she broke down and stated:
"Listen, H. I don't know what it's like in Japan, but in the U.S. we don't openly advertise Heroin parties!"

Halloween is a recent import to Japan. Generally speaking, there is no trick-or-treating, but there are Halloween parties organized by children's organizations and English conversation schools. Retail stores also decorate their windows and interiors with Halloween stuff. Some organize Halloween events and parades, the most famous (and earliest starter) being Kiddyland in Omotesando, Tokyo.

HTH!

Hahaha, good one.

From my experiences, there aren't many Japanese that celebrate Halloween in any noticeable way, except for a few parties and decorations here and there.

Other than the insane Yamanote Train Party (which I've once witnessed firsthand), I daresay the holiday slips by unnoticed by most.

Some rare trick or treating, mostly by foreigners to foreigners. No supplies of Halloween candy sold.
Costumes in some stores, mostly for isolated parties.
That's it.

Halloween in Asian sounds pretty odd.

Yes...the above responsed do the trick...hee, hee, hee...

Here in Matsumoto, we had our first annual 'Matsumoto Holloween Feastival' sponsered by Mazda, Matsumoto Chamber of Commerce, ANPIE, and a few other organizations. The initiator of the action was an Eikaiwa school's owner who had been basically doing it for a couple of years, but then had worked extra hard to make it go big. He did a good job !!

At our uni yesterday, from around 5:30 pm, we had a bunch of small sized witches, jack-o-lanterns, ghosts, and so for and so on running across campus to the upstairs cafeteria where the school held a party for them...with some events.

One of my friends who runs a number of ECC classes from her home, every year gets together with a friend of hers who also runs one, and they have a big Halloween party with events and English practicing games. I've helped out a number of times but have been two busy these last two years.

I will never forget being made into a mummy with toilet paper...then bursting forth to chase the little laughing screaming kids around. (they're the ones who did the wrapping anyway...) AND that's about it for Halloween in Nihon !!

I wonder if trick-or-treating would ever catch on in Japan. I can't imagine Japanese people having any interest whatsoever.

Is there not an tradition that is similar to Hallowe'en in Japan? I thought I heard of something were some celebrate something to do with Yokai etc?

BigBossIchi said:

Is there not an tradition that is similar to Hallowe'en in Japan? I thought I heard of something were some celebrate something to do with Yokai etc?

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In Japan, there is 753.
On November 15, it is a festival of a child.

BigBossIchi said:

Is there not an tradition that is similar to Hallowe'en in Japan? I thought I heard of something were some celebrate something to do with Yokai etc?

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I asked my host family about Halloween in Japan and said that it is not celebrated. hell, probably only nightclubs and conversation schools in major cities, but other than that, nothing more. We did trick-or-treating in English class at school, though.

Mom told me that kids get their annual share of candy at festivals, or Matsuri, no halloween needed.

and no, I don't think it will ever catch on in Japan. It hasn't caught up for some 25 or 30 years that Japan has been Americanized, why would it later?

Mauricio

I find it strange that they would take our holidays and celebrate them with little or no knowlege about where they came from and what they really mean. Even though many modern people are forgetting the roots of our holidays it just seems a little wierd that Japan would just go ahead and adopt them without the full back story.

Like us taking on a holiday and finding out it was originally a fertility ritual or something. Really strange. Or maybe I'm just over thinking this.

This is how it's celebrated in Japan.
http://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=yamanote+halloween&search=Search

Depending on who you believe about the origins of Halloween, one thought is that it is a carryover of Samhain, a Celtic celebration of the harvest and coming new year.

"Celts believed that on the night before the new year, the boundary between the worlds of the living and the dead became blurred. On the night of October 31, they celebrated Samhain, when it was believed that the ghosts of the dead returned to earth. In addition to causing trouble and damaging crops, Celts thought that the presence of the otherworldly spirits made it easier for the Druids, or Celtic priests, to make predictions about the future."

"To commemorate the event, Druids built huge sacred bonfires, where the people gathered to burn crops and animals as sacrifices to the Celtic deities.

During the celebration, the Celts wore costumes, typically consisting of animal heads and skins, and attempted to tell each other's fortunes. When the celebration was over, they re-lit their hearth fires, which they had extinguished earlier that evening, from the sacred bonfire to help protect them during the coming winter."

"By the 800s, the influence of Christianity had spread into Celtic lands. In the seventh century, Pope Boniface IV designated November 1 All Saints' Day, a time to honor saints and martyrs. It is widely believed today that the pope was attempting to replace the Celtic festival of the dead with a related, but church-sanctioned holiday. The celebration was also called All-hallows or All-hallowmas (from Middle English Alholowmesse meaning All Saints' Day) and the night before it, the night of Samhain, began to be called All-hallows Eve and, eventually, Halloween. "
http://www.history.com/minisite.do?...tent_type_id=713&display_order=1&mini_id=1076

"Samhuinn, from 31 October to 2 November was a time of no-time. Celtic society, like all early societies, was highly structured and organised, everyone knew their place. But to allow that order to be psychologically comfortable, the Celts knew that there had to be a time when order and structure were abolished, when chaos could reign. And Samhuinn, was such a time. Time was abolished for the three days of this festival and people did crazy things, men dressed as women and women as men. [This happened at Beltane too — IB] Farmers' gates were unhinged and left in ditches, peoples' horses were moved to different fields, and children would knock on neighbours' doors for food and treats in a way that we still find today, in a watered-down way, in the custom of trick-or-treating on Hallowe'en."

"The dead are honoured and feasted, not as the dead, but as the living spirits of loved ones and of guardians who hold the root-wisdom of the tribe." The Real Origins of Halloween

So, in essence, especially based on the use of fire and in line with the last sentence above, the Obon festival comes closest to this celebration. Some people actually light candles outside their homes to guide spirits of their ancestors "home" for the night, after which they return to the grave (or whatever equivalent to heaven they may believe in). Sorry, no costumes, though.

MadamePapillon said:

I find it strange that they would take our holidays and celebrate them with little or no knowlege about where they came from and what they really mean.

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Japan is well-known for adopting things from elsewhere. Since this is a global economy and media-driven, they most likely thought that the celebration of Halloween looked like fun and some started celebrating it themselves and it grew from there.

It is widely believed today that the pope was attempting to replace the Celtic festival of the dead with a related, but church-sanctioned holiday

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Lol, they did the same thing with Christmas, though I'm not as familiar with Christmas origins you can see Pagan influence in it to. Christmas trees, wreaths, mistletoe ect, but the church 'modified' it and turned it into Jesus's birthday.
Funny thing, I heard that the red sack that Santa uses to give presents to children, originally it was used to carry the dead bodies of children and that's the reason the sack is red, because of their blood.

Anyways, way off topic. My point is, no matter how 'cool' it may seem or how commercialized the holidays become it's still...almost disrespectful for them to take it on as a fad. There comes a point where the 'borrowing' becomes just plain rude.

MadamePapillon said:

I find it strange that they would take our holidays and celebrate them with little or no knowlege about where they came from and what they really mean.

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Wow, does this just apply for Japan? I didn't know. We all know that even in America and most Christian-Catholic countries Christmas is celebrated as commercial holiday. Just go look out for the nearest Mall, Wal-Mart, whatever. You find all this 'buy now, great price' kind of thing everywhere in the world. So, really, I find it not amazing that a first-world country as Japan 'celebrates' holidays such as Halloween, Christmas, even Easter (I don't know, I haven't stayed here that long). It is not surprising for me, I find it very normal for holidays to be used as commerciality.

Mauricio

Don't forget Mother's Day. Japan has that, too.

maushan3 said:

Wow, does this just apply for Japan? I didn't know. We all know that even in America and most Christian-Catholic countries Christmas is celebrated as commercial holiday. Just go look out for the nearest Mall, Wal-Mart, whatever. You find all this 'buy now, great price' kind of thing everywhere in the world. So, really, I find it not amazing that a first-world country as Japan 'celebrates' holidays such as Halloween, Christmas, even Easter (I don't know, I haven't stayed here that long). It is not surprising for me, I find it very normal for holidays to be used as commerciality.
Mauricio

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Even in our own countries there is anger about the holidays being turned into nothing more than a consumerists theme park. I've met tons of people that are disgusted by this because, believe it or not, these holidays actually used to mean something other than filling the wallets of big corporations.

I guess the problem I have is our culture being turned into a free-for-all, anyone can cash in. It just really surprised me that our holidays and traditions have become so degraded that another country and culture would take them on as nothing more than a cheap excuse to party and make money.

To me that shows a more than extreme lack of respect and courtesy towards us and is one of the few things that makes me truly angry. Despite popular opinion I don't think our traditions should be something that can be tossed away so easily or have a price tag slapped on them or be disrespected by another culture so casually. Let's have a little dignity, please.

MadamePapillon said:

To me that shows a more than extreme lack of respect and courtesy towards us and is one of the few things that makes me truly angry. Despite popular opinion I don't think our traditions should be something that can be tossed away so easily or have a price tag slapped on them or be disrespected by another culture so casually. Let's have a little dignity, please.

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zzzz

Talk about respect...

http://www.japanprobe.com/?p=3014


Who are you to tell anyone Japan is stealing YOUR Halloween, when a bunch of obnoxious westerners in Japan excuse their own act of public disturbance because "we are just having fun (in our own view!)" and "Japanese would enjoy this too!?" Is this what some idiots call multi-culturalism!? and cultural diversity?

In fact, Halloween is a foreign festival to most Japanese, and the silent majority have a strict "shrug off and keep walking" policy on this kind of foreign idiocy!!

I read something about this.... ah found it!
In Roppongi there is many things going on....

Come join the fun dressed up in your Halloween costume at the Roppongi Hills Arena!!
The annual Halloween Parade will again be held this year!
So come join us at the parade dressed up as your favorite pumpkin, witch or pirate!
And when you participate in your costume, you receive a souvenir badge and sweets!
Dates & time : Saturday, October 27 / 11:00 - 13:30
Come participate at any time until 13:30.
Each parade is limited to about 200 participants.
Several parades will be held during the time allowed, and each parade lasts for 25 minutes.
The staring time of the parades may change depending on the number of participants.
(N.B. There may be a large crowd in the morning.)
Venue : Roppongi Hills Arena
Eligibility : Any child or adult dressed up in a Halloween costume.
All children must be accompanied by a parent or guardian (the accompanying adult need not be in a costume).
Reservations : Saturday, October 27
10 :30 – 13 :00 at the Roppongi Hills Arena
Participants who have signed up between 10:30 – 13:00 are eligible to participate.

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and also...

On the day of the parade, we welcome all children to come to our costume-making class! You can choose from a variety of your favorite witch costumes, pumpkin costumes, and more!
Date & time : Saturday, October 27 / 10:00 ~ (Limited to 100 participants)
Venue : Roppongi Hills Arena
Collaborated by : Kids' Square (6th Floor, West Walk)
Limit : 100 participants on a first-come-first-served basis
Fee : 300 yen (To cover material cost)
Eligibility : Children around ages 2-7.

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So I guess there are some things that happen, like Others have said here. Both those are taken from roppongihills.com

Who are you to tell anyone Japan is stealing YOUR Halloween, when a bunch of obnoxious westerners in Japan excuse their own act of public disturbance because "we are just having fun (in our own view!)" and "Japanese would enjoy this too!?" Is this what some idiots call multi-culturalism!? and cultural diversity?

In fact, Halloween is a foreign festival to most Japanese, and the silent majority have a strict "shrug off and keep walking" policy on this kind of foreign idiocy!!

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Ok, so a bunch of 'foreigners' and japanese people get together for a Halloween party, people get drunk and generally make asses of themselves and damage public property. This happens anywhere, with anybody, and in any culture, no matter what. You get crowds, alcohol and a party together and nothing good is going to come of it. But, horror of horrors, foreigners were involved and suddenly a few drunken idiots is turned into a race riot.

However, sometime yesterday morning, the Japanese megaforum 2ch.net discovered that post about the event and translated the information about it into Japanese, igniting a raging storm of anti-foreign hatred and sending over 10,000 visitors to this site.

Numerous threads over at 2channel and some Japanese blogs began to fill up with anonymous comments calling for outraged Japanese to contact the police and demand that they round up and arrest all the foreigners that joined in on the party [words like ﾂ"riotersﾂ" and ﾂ"terroristsﾂ" were used to refer to the foreigners]. Others boldly proclaimed that they would show up at Shinjuku station with knives and stab foreigners to death, and one even posted a comment on Japan Probe claiming that he would ﾂ"blastﾂ" trains on the Yamanote Line.

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Somehow I don't think disabling some lights and getting naked in public deserves that kind of response.
It's that sort of thing I find disrespectful. The willingness to import a foreign holiday simply because it's cool to be associated with the west at the moment but intolerence of the foreigners themselves. Why take our holidays, traditions and customs if all it is to you is a silly fad and you don't want to actually deal with the people that holiday is associated with?
Japan should have been prepared, you start importing our holidays you better be ready to say hello the people as well, idiots and all.

diceke said:

Hahaha, not again, blame the Japanese! blame the Japanese!! Typically western mindset!

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What can I say. It is our holiday, and I don't see how a bunch of drunken party-goers deserves death threats simply for celebrating our holiday in our way. A night in jail, sure, but death threats is a bit much.

I can guarantee, whether they were in Japan or in their own country those kids were going to act crazy and get into trouble. All I'm saying is, adopting our holiday is as good as an open invitation for us to come on over. If Japan doesn't want us and our 'crazy' ways near them, they shouldn't be celebrating our holidays.