Explaining Easter to Japanese children

Explaining Easter to Japanese children - Printable Version

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Explaining Easter to Japanese children - marydj - 2008-03-07

Hi all, this is really off topic but I am hosting two Japanese girl scouts at my house (in Japan) this weekend for a cultural exchange thing, They will not be English speakers and my Japanese skills are still pretty weak. We were told that they will bring a gift so we should have a gift to give them when they go home. I thought since it is so close to Easter I would make up Easter baskets for them so I got a bunch of American Easter candy and stuff. I want to include a copy of the Easter story and western Easter traditions in Japanese since Easter will probably be completely foreign to them and my language skills are not up to an explanation but I can't find anything on the web. Do any of you have any ideas of where I might find something like that? They are coming tomorrow so I'm a little pressed for time Smile

Thanks.

Explaining Easter to Japanese children - smithem - 2008-03-07

http://ja.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E5%BE%A9%E6%B4%BB%E7%A5%AD

Japanese wikipedia is always your friend. Maybe there's something here?

Explaining Easter to Japanese children - wrightak - 2008-03-07

Also, here:

http://www.eigotown.com/culture/special/easter/index.shtml

and here:

http://homepage2.nifty.com/BZF11333/NewsKGeaster.htm

and here: Smile

http://allabout.co.jp/gourmet/sweets/closeup/CU20040401A/index.htm

Not sure that any of them are really geared towards kids I'm afraid though. Good luck - it's a tough thing to explain in any language: It commemorates the resurrection of Jesus Christ and we have lots of chocolate eggs and bunnies....

eh?

Explaining Easter to Japanese children - Biene - 2008-03-07

Wikipedia is probably the easiest choice...

I think it's a very nice idea you have there.
Are you also planning to have them hunt for the easter-baskets or do you just want to give them the baskets?
We did a hike through the woods lately with a group of Japanese exchangestudents - to view some springflowers - and suddenly they ended up in a part of the wood, where all these colourfull hardboiled eggs where lying under bushes, in the moss, and under fallen loggs. You should have seen their excitement. Smile

And they were adults who new a bit about easter and some of the traditions that come with it. It took them quite a while to realize that those eggs had been put there by some members of our group and were hardboiled chicken eggs and not some funny looking fruit that were egg-shaped. They even believed us when we told them that we always take table-salt with us in those parts of the woods at that time of year since you could always find those eggs then.

All in all it was great fun and they enjoyed it too. So your idea of giving some easter-related gift sounds really great. Maybe you can even decorate some easter-eggs together with them, or bake some easter-bread with them.

Edit:
As a kid I didn't really care about the Christian idea behind the whole event, I only cared about the chocolate and the easter bunny (or stork, or Kuckuck, or fox, or whoever brought those chocolate things). But then again I've always been an ignorant child. Wink

Explaining Easter to Japanese children - dukelexon - 2008-03-08

I think it would be wise to include a bit about the Pagan origins of Easter (i.e., it was originally a celebration of Spring, renewal, fertility, and rebirth). The esoteric nuances of what the Roman Catholic church kind of turned it into might be a little difficult to understand, without that background...

Especially the parts about rabbits, decorated eggs, and grassy-floral themes ... these are all elements that were part of the celebration before Christ, and before the annual spring-time festival came to focus on the Resurrection. To an outside cultural sensibility, it might be difficult to see the connective tissue between it all.

Also, candy is kind of fleeting and temporary. I'd recommend putting a few things in the basket that'll last a bit longer than a chocolate bunny, and may serve some other practical purpose than simple education. If your "gift" is all about teaching them about Western traditions, it may come across as condescension (I've got countless Bibles, born-again pamphlets, and Books of Mormon I've received as "birthday" gifts to atest to that).

Explaining Easter to Japanese children - Jarvik7 - 2008-03-08

dukelexon Wrote:If your "gift" is all about teaching them about Western traditions, it may come across as condescension (I've got countless Bibles, born-again pamphlets, and Books of Mormon I've received as "birthday" gifts to atest to that).

At least if the power goes out you won't be cold.

Explaining Easter to Japanese children - chamcham - 2008-03-08

Just tell the kids that Easter is the holiday for buying big chocolate bunnies and leaving them in your refrigerator forever..... :-p

.......and then proceed to pass out chocolate bunnies...... :-)

Explaining Easter to Japanese children - johnzep - 2008-03-09

as long as they learn that rabbits lay chocolate cream-filled eggs, I think everything is fine

Explaining Easter to Japanese children - marydj - 2008-03-09

Thanks everyone. In the end I just gave them the baskets. After all how far wrong can you go with candy and cute pastel colored toys. We had a great time although 24 hours with 10 year olds who don't speak English taught me just how bad my Japanese skills are Smile

When I dropped them off I had the girl scout leader tell them that Easter was an American holiday that is celebrated by giving baskets of candy. Close enough.

Explaining Easter to Japanese children - cerulean - 2008-05-21

heh.. that sounds difficult.

The whole egg, bunny, and candy stuff is just marketing.. It's a commercial holiday.

The real meaning has to do with some of Jesus's more wild adventures.. Good luck explaining christianity to two young Japanese girls. :p

Explaining Easter to Japanese children - stshores24 - 2008-05-27

johnzep Wrote:as long as they learn that rabbits lay chocolate cream-filled eggs, I think everything is fine

Amen. And yum.

Explaining Easter to Japanese children - mentat_kgs - 2008-06-12

Not quite "an american holiday". more like a western holiday.

But now, I wonder how japanese understand christmas?

Explaining Easter to Japanese children - gwhutton - 2008-06-29

I had a really fun time explaining easter to my elementary school kids (only three).

It went like this:

I made the sign of the cross, and said "kurisuto? shiteimasuka?"
hai

then I acted like I was on a cross, screaming "itaaaiiiii! itaiiiiii!"

then I acted dead.

then I said "san nichi ato de....tenmaya e ikimasu." tenmaya is a japanese dept store which uses the kanji for heaven or sky as its logo.

then I said, ima kara, tamago to asobimashou! (from now lets play with eggs) and we colored eggs and made a huge mess.

I am sooo going to hell!