EL PASO – In the same moment, the bird perceived Sonjo, but instead of trying to escape, she swam straight towards him, looking at him in a strange fixed way. Then, with her beak, she suddenly tore open her own body, and died before the hunter’s eyes.
The passage above comes from a Japanese horror story called “Oshidori,” meaning mandarin ducks. It is possible that this story has been told around Halloween. Although, Halloween has not been much of a celebrated holiday in Japan, its popularity is slowly starting to rise. I got curious about them celebrating Halloween after watching Soul Eater, in which a cat transforms into a witch where jack-o-lanterns surround her.
A Jack o' Lantern. ©Toby Ord
After almost three years of watching anime and Japanese dramas, I fell in love with their culture. I have wanted to go to Japan since then and I plan on going in about two years when I have saved enough money to stay for a week. I love how open-minded they are with other cultures rather than just their own.
In the United States, we celebrate Halloween typically by trick-or-treating from house to house in costumes. During September and October, many cities, towns, shopping malls and amusement parks in Japan have events linked to Halloween. Parades, Halloween parties and sometimes trick-or-treating events are held during this time as well.
Despite these events, Japan celebrates Halloween more because of the decorations and the opportunity to dress up as their favorite anime or video game characters, known as cosplay – a word short for costume play. Because of their openness to clothing, they can wear anything and play it off well. Even a Japanese Ronald McDonald costume looks cute!
They also like to use this holiday to tell horror stories such as the one above, but they all seem to have a moral to teach. Oshidori are not supposed to be hunted. When they are, a bad omen surrounds the killer. Out of hunger, Sonjo killed the mate of the duck who tore herself open and so, witnessing her death was his punishment. Another story tells of the ghost of a woman who always hung around a dresser. Even when the dresser was emptied, the woman still remained, which scared the family living in the home. The reason why she lingers is later discovered by a priest and the woman does not show up again.
O-bon, a holiday that the Japanese celebrate, which closely resembles Día de los muertos, occurs around July. On the first day, they decorate the graves with food and lanterns. The second day is reserved to make tamadana, or spirit altars, at home using old emblems representing the deceased and cucumbers shaped to symbolize horses for the spirits to ride. On the third day, they get together for a dance. In the evening, small paper lanterns are released into the river to help the spirits find their way back to where they belong.
The Asian culture has its own influences, but U.S. influence is a prominent influence there as well. They are taught English in their schools and they know many of our famous celebrities, like Brad Pitt, Angelina Jolie, and Leonard DiCaprio. Here in America, we do not know much about their culture because, at least in my opinion, we have a sense of superiority that we cannot shake off and we do not consider learning about other cultures. I feel that showing how they celebrate Halloween will help us learn something new about a place that is around 6,000 miles away from us.
