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Mid-Year Gift-Giving (2004-06-19)

Mid-year gift-giving is called Ochugen in Japan.  It literally means the fifteenth day of the seventh month.  In the Edo Period, people visited the graves of their ancestors to pay respects during this time.  They also prayed for the safety of their families and visited relatives with gifts.  The gifts they bore were usually foodstuffs such as rice, noodles, sweets and fruits because they were meant to be shared and enjoyed with their ancesters' spirits.

Nowadays Ochugen is a time when people send others gifts as a means to express thanks.  This gift-giving custom is practiced by adults only such as grown-up children giving gifts to parents and relatives, or salarymen sending gifts to bosses.  Students of all ages are not expected or required to send gifts to their teachers.

Traditional gifts include coffee, beer, seaweed and washing detergent.  The last one thought to be well-received by mothers because of its practicality and long shelf life.  Department stores or large supermarkets will have set up gift centers with a display of sample gift packs for people to choose from by mid June.  Gifts are to be sent from early July and must be delivered by the fifteenth.

There are rules one must follow when giving such gifts.  They must be nicely packaged and wrapped.  They must also include a gift card called Noshigami on which the word Ochugen and the name of the sender are written with a Japanese brush or pens that give the same effect.  Writing with any other implement is considered a social blunder.

KL works for a US company, so he is spared of the burden of having to give gifts to his bosses.  But he can always send one to me.  I won't even demand he write the gift card with a brush, as long as it is nicely wrapped.



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