The Importance of New Year to Chinese and Japanese
New Year Eve is very important for Chinese. In this day, Everybody will go home for the reunion dinner. Back in the traditional China hundreds of year ago, Chinese actually released criminals back home for reunion dinner with their family in New Year Eve. From this we can see the importance of reunion dinner of new year eve for the old Chinese.
Family is the basic of Chinese society, this yearly event can bring back everybody who is not at home. In this day, everybody feel warm in heart. The reunion dinner can be fency or just simple. In Hong Kong, volunteer organizations actually bring "reunion dinner" for the homeless. Although the "reunion dinner" only have piece of roast duck and some eggs in the box, the homeless already feel the warmth from it.
New Year has been one of the most important annual festivals in Japanese culture. People send greetings to each other to wish for others’ and their own happiness. New Year celebration has always meant to be “renewal of life” since ancient days. From the world’s perspectives, Japanese people have had an idea that human beings and nature are to repeat a certain cycle (such as death and birth, depression and recovery). New Year celebration basically originated from this notion, to revive the sun during winter for coming new season. Nowadays, New Year’s Day is more for human communication in Japan and has less meaning in prayer. It is very hard for Japanese people to get together with their family and also, they have less concern about family or family celebration comparing to other countries. (For example, if you are Japanese then you don’t really need to celebrate your mom’s birthday!) However, New Year still keeps an important role being an event to call family and get together. Everybody goes back to their home and spend time with their family having great home cooking. I believe this custom will not change for long and it will always remain significant for people in Japan.