Wednesday, January 28, 2009
A gift
Jack came home from work the other night and shared with me the gift he received from one of the Japanese men that works for him. It was a white towel, simply wrapped in white paper, about the size of a hand towel. I said, "I don't get it, did the guy say anything about it when he gave it to you?" Jack said that he just gave it to him right before a meeting and there wasn't much time for discussion. It's not even the sweaty season when most people carry around a towel to wipe themselves down, but this towel was too big for that. Maybe it's the clean, white, new thing- symbolizing the New Year? Anybody?
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4 comments:
http://everything2.com/e2node/Gift%2520giving%2520in%2520Japan
try the above, but don't you have a book about customs and the culture?
too much work for me today - why don't you give it a shot?
I'm asking my friends Jenny and Aki. I'll get back to you.
OK, this is what my friend sent me:
Oseibo (お歳暮）is one of the two annual gift giving periods; Oseibo is given in winter and Ochuugen is given in the summer. These gift-giving traditions have been kept for many hundreds of years. The gift is to thank those who have helped you through out the year. For example people who provide business to you, teachers, neighbors etc. The gift can be anything from money, gift-vouchers, packs of beer, towels, chinaware. In general these gifts are usually things that can be used by the whole family, not just the individual that it was given to. The gifts do have one thing in common and that is the way they are labeled; they are given in an envelope or boxed with a white piece of paper on top that says Oseibo and the name of the giver. Most Japanese companies pay their employees a summer and winter bonus and the Ochuugen and Oseibo gifts are given around this time.
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