I can’t believe it’s not a holiday. I know that ethnic Chinese people don’t usually celebrate Christmas unless they’re christians, and even then I doubt that they really get what it’s all about. I mean it’s not about Jesus and it’s not just about crass commercialism. It’s about a whole month of excited anticipation, the cool winter weather, people putting up decorations, the annoying christmas muzak in public places, trying to find just the right gifts for friends and family, the office Christmas parties with lots of good food, then the real parties with those who really matter, then the big event, which sometimes lasts for a week or more, of gathering together and eating and talking and sharing memories, of cool new toys, of playing with the new stuff and going for adventures outside, and if one is really lucky playing in the snow, all the way through New Years eve, with the drunkenness, the hangovers, the resolutions that will soon be forgotten, and ending with the christmas trees out at the roadside waiting for the trashmen and everyone back home getting ready to return to work.
That’s what it means to me and I resent that we don’t even get one day off. I know they used to have a day off here, for other reasons, but the old grinch Chen eliminated that. So now we’re supposed to head to the office for just another regular day and celebrate Christmas for one evening. Whoopdeedoo.
I mailed Christmas cards to my family and today I sent them presents, but I haven’t done anything for myself yet. I think I’ll buy some pointsettas and some christmas lights, but then what? Should I ask for the day off? Should I hang stockings for Santa? Can he even find Taiwan?
I always tell my employers “Christmas is part of my cultuire, it’s important to me, and i need to take the day off”. 4 different employers have all said yes without a problem, and if they say no, there’s always other jobs.
same with me, Mother. I always get Xmas Day off, my employers have always been kind and generous and understand very well the importance of this special day for us Westerners. Just ask, and if there is a problem, take a sick leave for the day. Make it three days, Xmas Eve, Xmas Day and one day to relax. Sure. This IS Taiwan, where Xmas is not a national holiday, but you are free to do what you want. Or: hop on a plane and go back to your country for a week. That’s what I did last year! FUN!
i’ll be sitting in my cube all day while mrs.monk is educating the masses.
we already have presents under the tree - shrub, actuallly… and maybe we’ll get more, or maybe we won’t. on saturday morning (after christmas) we’ll sleep late, make a big pot of coffee and bust out some delicious fruit and other breakfast-y items and take turns opening stuff.
then, relaxing til monday morning
I don’t have a tree, but this year, the first time since living in Taiwan, I actually strung lights around my living room. Looks a bit strange, but I don’t have space for a tree and wanted to do something Christmasy this year. I think I paid about $300 for four sets of lights, it’s more than enough to circle our living room.
If you work for a branch office of any Western firm they’ll probably give you the day off, if not two days off. When I’ve worked for any Taiwan company I’ve never gotten off any western holidays, which I never expected to get off anyway. I’d imagine if I was Chinese and had a company in a western country, I’d probably give Chinese New Year off to my employees. Well… maybe, depends on how big of a bastard boss I was… but htat’s another story.
Sent Christmas cards on Monday which I do everywhere. I don’t know this is the first year I have ANY Christmas spirit since living here, not sure what’s different…
[quote=“Mother Theresa”]it’s not about Jesus[/quote] Maybe not for you, but Christmas sure is about Jesus for me, and millions of us other westerners.
You can do all this here a month later at Chinese New Year and none of that is about Jesus for anyone. You haven’t lost your holiday, just traded a tree for a dancing dragon and pushed it back a little.
Sorry housecat but I disagree. Not with the point about jesus – if that’s what it’s all about to you then halelujah. But about the latter point. Chinese New Year, in my experience, doesn’t come close to Christmas. Sure, the family all gathers around and one eats all day till one can’t eat another bite. And some men might get a little drunk and everyone hands eachother red envelopes with money. For a day. Or two. But that’s it. There’s no decorations, no tree and no lights. No special holiday music. No real gifts (hongbaos and boxes of fruit don’t count). No new toys to play with. No snow, no santa, no reindeer. Small children aren’t so excited that they can hardly sleep. And when the big day comes, its still the same dirty, stinky noisy city outside the door of the apartment, with ugly buildings and taxis, etc.
In fact, I’ve felt badly for my wife for the past couple of years that she grew up deprived of all the fun holidays we have in the west. Valentines Day romance. Birthday parties with presents. Easter egg hunts. Haloween with costumes and trick or treating. Fourth of July barbecues and fireworks. Thanksgiving feast with football and all that. Even silly little Aprils Fool Day. But especially Christmas, with real gifts and everything else for almost a month of excitement. And now that I’ve married my wife I feel happy that I will have the opportunity to introduce her at last to all she was missing. But I feel I can’t quite replicate the real event here in Taiwan. . . although I guess I’ll try.
MT, seems like you are a great catch, your wife is one lucky girl!
Come back to US for the Xmas, and you will def. fall in-love with it. All the Xmas decoration, Xmas shopping, Xmas gift sets… Xmas EVERYTHING!!! Don’t ya miss the snow!!!
[quote=“housecat”][quote=“Mother Theresa”]it’s not about Jesus[/quote] Maybe not for you, but Christmas sure is about Jesus for me, and millions of us other westerners.
You can do all this here a month later at Chinese New Year and none of that is about Jesus for anyone. You haven’t lost your holiday, just traded a tree for a dancing dragon and pushed it back a little.[/quote]
btw…if youse want to eat turkey at home then hsin dong yang is doing a turkey deal for 1700 for just the bird or 2400 for the full biftas (champers, veges, pie etc)
me i’ll be in thailand beside a pool somewhere being fed grapes and mai tai by a trio of nubile exotic dancers…
I was always taught as a child that Christmas was invented by the church and was not a significant Christian holiday - Easter, of course, being the big holiday. Old Christmas Day, I am told, was on Jan 6, the present date having been selected in order to hijack some pagan festival or other that the church disapproved of.
Actually, Xmas is an old Roman holiday celebratint sex and orgies, but the Christians took it over (thanks, Uncle Jesus!) and turned it into a birthday party with all the trimmings, and the world just aint been the same since. We should have left it the way it was, and just used Easter as our BIG HOLIDAY. greedy greedy undid us!
[quote=“Mother Theresa”]Sorry housecat but I disagree. Not with the point about Jesus – if that’s what it’s all about to you then halelujah. But about the latter point. Chinese New Year, in my experience, doesn’t come close to Christmas. Sure, the family all gathers around and one eats all day till one can’t eat another bite. And some men might get a little drunk and everyone hands eachother red envelopes with money. For a day. Or two. But that’s it. There’s no decorations, no tree and no lights. No special holiday music. No real gifts (hongbaos and boxes of fruit don’t count). No new toys to play with. No snow, no santa, no reindeer. Small children aren’t so excited that they can hardly sleep. And when the big day comes, its still the same dirty, stinky noisy city outside the door of the apartment, with ugly buildings and taxis, etc.
In fact, I’ve felt badly for my wife for the past couple of years that she grew up deprived of all the fun holidays we have in the west. Valentines Day romance. Birthday parties with presents. Easter egg hunts. Haloween with costumes and trick or treating. Fourth of July barbecues and fireworks. Thanksgiving feast with football and all that. Even silly little Aprils Fool Day. But especially Christmas, with real gifts and everything else for almost a month of excitement. And now that I’ve married my wife I feel happy that I will have the opportunity to introduce her at last to all she was missing. But I feel I can’t quite replicate the real event here in Taiwan. . . although I guess I’ll try.[/quote]
you resent that you don’t have a day off for Christmas in Taiwan? Well, too freaking bad. you are not in Europe or North America. Miss your football? get your ass back to the States. Why other cultures must follow your western holidays? Oh , i get it, Western Holidays and traditions are j ust vastly superior than that of other cultures. Hey, if you don’t like whats going on in Taiwan, you can always get your ass outta there and don’t let the door hit you in the ass.
Seeing as this is Christmas in Taiwan shouldn’t we use Taiwanese-English and call it X’Mas ? complete with strange aprostrophe that’s used nowhere else.
I can remember being annoyed at the overcommercialisation of Christmas when I was living in Canada but I have to admitt that I miss the whole holiday season. Seeing family, food, drink, and good cheer was what it was all about for me. I’ve never been able to replicate any of that here in Taiwan. The first year we went to Kenting which seemed pretty cool - the weather was nice and we sat on a beach. The second year was spent in Kenting as well but it was cold and gray. We spent a few years going to Thailand which was really great but nothing close to the feeling of Christmas. This year it’s Hsinchu which is about as anti-Christmas as you can get I think. I’m sure I’ll have no problem taking time off but am wondering if there is much of a point. Bah humbug I guess.
Careful Mother T! Jyeager seems to have an unusually high level of interest in your bot.
Personally I dont mind working on Christmas Day - keeps me off the grog for a few hours! But I can understand why many people would rather have it off.
The strange thing is that we are surrounded by many of the trappings of Christmas - decorations, Christmas trees, music, and Santas - but the day is not actually a holiday.
Well Christmas is an evolvong holiday. A bunch of pagan festivals got coopted by the Church and it was Christianised and now it’s getting de-Christianised again. All the better I say. Real Christians can ignore a commercial holiday and get all pious on Easter or sometime and non-Christians can enjoy allt he pagan gift-giving and revelry. As Christmas gets internationalised (and Fluffy, I’ve never heard a Taiwanese say Xmas) this process goes on. That’s one great thing about Christmas in Taiwan - none of that Christian nonsense. I like asking Taiwanese (children and adults) “whose birthday does Christmas celebrate?”. It’s funny how many say “Santa Claus”.
No, it’s not a case of bah humbug. Just accept that you are in a non western country, your choice i believe, and enjoy it for what it is. Why is it that westerners always demand that the entire world be remade for them, wherever they go? This is not Christmasland. So what? Make your own Christmas cheer and stop whining. O if only the entire planet was like HOME SWEET HOME. Do you really want that?
And would u say the same complaints if you were living in Korea or Japan or Thailand or Iraq? See! we cannot remake the entire world in our image, not even on God image. Break out of the mold! It’s a global village now, and we are just one POV among many.
But i know, you just need to vent, Kelake, and that is what this forum is for. So vent away, and have a veddy nice Xmas anyway. Don’t be a humbug. be a hug bug!
formosa, I don’t think you understand what kelake was saying. I don’t think his post was meant as criticism of Taiwanese/Chinese culture so much as saying that he missed one of the nice things about western culture – the Christmas holiday season. At least I think that’s what he meant because that’s what I meant and his post rang true to me. It’s not about getting a day off; it’s about the whole season.
I like lots of food in Taiwan, but there are plenty of foods that I miss: good cheese, fresh salads, bread, mexican and italian food, places that serve good big breakfasts, etc. Just because one misses those foods occasionally does not mean one thinks that chodofu stinks (though it does).
And as Christmas rolls around, I don’t see anything wrong with missing the holiday season. That doesn’t mean one thinks Taiwan sucks. It just means that I, and Kelake, enjoy the way we celebrate the holidays in the west and may feel a little wistful in the absence of that Christmas spirit. Nor did he say that Taiwan should be like the west. And neither did I.
