Christmas season at Bunka Suginami Canadian International School

Having worked for so many years in schools in BC, I am very familiar with the Christmas buzz in schools across North America: the decorations, the special projects and of course the all-important Christmas (or is it Holiday?) concert. It has been really fun to discover some of the school rituals here in a country that doesn't officially celebrate Christmas.

My first surprise was all of the excitement and hype build-up here among the students and staff because last Friday we had "The Mochitsuki". I couldn't quite figure what everybody was so excited about though I knew it had something to do with the New Year, Sumo wrestlers and pounding rice...Ah yes, the limitations of a 4 year old child's language understanding.

So Friday noon arrived and I raced up to the gym after my class to find this:

There, as can be seen, in the middle of the gym were 5 ENORMOUS Sumo wrestlers who were definitely not following the dress code surrounded by 600 excited, laughing and engaged students dressed in their usual formal uniforms.

The first thing I needed to do was to get a closer look at those physiques...

Wow, these guys were huge!

I then bit by bit began to piece together what was happening. In the middle of the gym they had the Mochi bowl, a bowl where the rice was being pounded into a rice paste by these seriously endowed Sumo wrestlers.

Representatives from each homeroom had the opportunity to pound the rice so long as they washed their hands and wore the sacred jersey. These are two of my DD girls hard at work on the Mochi:

As the students pounded away the whole gym would burst out into cheers. Of course I realized that soon it would have to be MY turn, and sure enough I was called out to participate in my first Mochitsuki event in my life! It actually took me back to splitting wood for our stove in Kaslo; not quite the same setting!

Well THAT was exciting for all! From there we all had our chance to get our pictures taken with these professional Sumo wrestlers (me with some of my collegues and students):

And then the girls all got a piece of the Mochi to eat there and then:

After the dust had settled I had a chance to do a little research and find out that this is an important good luck ritual for the new year. Households of Japanese descent around the world celebrate this way. Click here to find more info. Having the Sumo wrestlers there added to the good luck of the event. 

I was fascinated to find out more about their outfit hearing that originally this outfit was designed to show that they were fighting with nothing to hide. Since then the outfit has become highly ritual. Here is some info on this. Here is another link. 

The following day (Saturday) the school turned itself around from Sumo to a "Christmas Event" put on by the English department as a recruitment of new students to the school with over 80 kids in attendance. 

Who said that Santa didn't exist?

Merry Christmas in whatever way you chose to celebrate it from all of us to all of you!