Skip to main content

Countdown to Christmas 16 - Another Birthday!


" She just turned 26. She's a Christmas cake now." ....
To me it seems ironic, that in Japan, a country where Christmas is not really celebrated, that the term "Christmas cake" could become such an anti-feminist expression in the 1980's . In Japan it has become a tradition to eat Christmas cake on Christmas Eve, but the  Christmas cakes are highly decorated sponge cakes with lots of  whipped cream and fresh fruit.  These cakes are very popular and expensive and are usually ordered weeks in advance, but they have a short shelf life and do not last after Christmas Day.
So, the cake intended for Christmas that was not eaten or left over  after 25th December is considered "bad" and should be thrown out. "Christmas Cake" then became the term for women who were over the age of 25 and unmarried. The implied meaning is that a Japanese woman 26+years is considered past her prime, and hence undesirable  as a marriage partner.
While the use of  " christmas cake " to describe unmarried 26 year old women  is not commonly used in Japan any more such statements as " She married her husband at 30, so you know he wasn't bothered that she was Christmas cake!" can still be heard and  indicate that the traditional ideas of women's status based on Confucianism and the feudal law of the samurai are still given some credence. However, as the age of women when they marry increases, the usage of "Christmas Cake"   in the future will have no significance.
 
Tomorrow - another Jpaanese connection with Christmas Cake.

Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Thanks for reading my blog and please share your thoughts about my blog post by leaving a comment.Your comment won't appear immediately as comments are verified before publication in an effort to reduce the amount of spam appearing. Anonymous comments will not be published.

Popular posts from this blog

Fish and Sticks : Art Dolls

This week I've been working on fish and sticks ....  The sticks are the message stick art dolls which were very popular, attracting some attention and a few orders at the Wise Women exhibition. Each of the message stick dolls are from the Wise Women series, each with her own personality and  message of wisdom, handwritten on a handmade timber tag. I gather the sticks during my walks around my neighbourhood and the tags are made from special bits of timber, some collected by me or  my husband or from off cuts gifted to us  from another doll making friend whose husband makes bagpipes. These dolls start off very simply with a wrap around a stick, in the general shape of a body. 'Naked" message stick dolls - strips of wadding wrapped around found sticks.   Then I usually wrap other layers of fabric, wool, and/or fibres, over which I do some simple embroidery. I sculpt  or mould small face masks for these dolls. I really like using "sari ribbon" as w...
3 comments
Read more

Lilly Pilly

Today is Australia Day. I chose a photo of some Lilly Pilly berries as a celebratory image for this national day. Lilly Pilly is  a common name for a plant, Syzygium smithii which grows mostly in Eastern Australia, from the northern  rain forests of Queensland, throughout NSW to the southern Wilson's Promontory in Victoria. In New Zealand it is called "monkey apple, but other names used in Australia, besides lilly pilly, are Eungella Gum and Coast Satinash. The largest Lilly Pilly recorded was found in Dingo Creek Flora Reserve, near Tenterfield where I once lived.  The tree now growing in my garden was once a small seedling which I was gifted when I left Woolgoolga, a small coastal town in northern NSW. Its name  is said to come from the Aboriginal word 'weelgoolga' describing the lilly pilly which grows in profusion there. It is probably no surprise that the lilly pilly berries are edible as bush tucker, and make a beautiful jam or jelly. I have even seen re...
Post a Comment
Read more

Ethereal Threads : Textile Art

Meredith Woolnough is a beautiful talented young artist. Her current work is exquisite, stunning, engaging and awe inspiring. As you can see from the images, Meredith reproduces the beauty of nature in stitch – literally thousands of metres of embroidery thread stitched onto a background which is later dissolved. What remains is like a delicate “skeleton", but somehow with depth of colour, movement and strength. I think what is conveyed in Meredith’s work is overwhelmingly the love and reverence for her natural subject matter and her intimate knowledge of its structure.      Meredith’s latest exhibition is called “Ethereal Threads”, superbly presented at Timeless Textiles.  It is a collection of framed fine art which demonstrates Meredith’s attention to the details of presentation – each of the large pieces is pinned to archer paper and the play of shadow on the paper enhances the beauty of each.  There are  finely detailed delic...
Post a Comment
Read more