Merry Christmas!

Merry Christmas to you all !

How was your Christmas celebration? Though we just began our Christmas celebration yesterday in our faith tradition, in fact, the celebration was already over in Japan except among us, Christians. After the celebration in our Cathedral had completed, I went for a walk around 7 pm to downtown Niigata which is just a few minutes away from my house. As I was passing by the Daiwa department store in downtown Niigata, I realised that the number of company staff removing the "Dancing Rabbits" and other Christmas ornaments away. Wow, it is still on the Christmas day but they are removing all these as if the celebration is over. Well, yes it is in Japan.

As I mentioned about these machine rabbits on November 14's post, the "Usagi (Rabbit) Dancing Team" of Daiwa department store has been a common sight in Niigata to prepare for Christmas. Then in order to replace these Christmas decoration, a beautiful and magnificent flower arrangement was brought in to the spot to be ready for the New Year's celebration. So today in the town, no one is thinking about Christmas anymore but the New Year celebration.

Well, on 24 at 8 pm in Niigata Cathedral, during the midnight Mass of the Nativity of the Lord presided by myself, 3 ladies were baptised. Two of them were Japanese and one was a Brazilian lady. As usual in the past, so many non-Christians came to attend the Mass. For quite sometime, spending time in Christian Churches for Christmas Eve has been a kind of fashion in Japan. So our Cathedral which can contain only 300 people was packed. I hope my message on dignity of Human lives which is a gift of God left something in the heart of those who just happened to be with us for the celebration.