A Look at Our Global History and What We have Learned

For this assignment, I chose the "Shogatsu" table. Shogatsu is the the Japanese New Year, and it seemed to be an appropriate holiday to post about in conjunction with what we have been learning about in the past few weeks, especially with the discussion of the development of both eastern Asia and Southeastern Asian states. The Japanese new years is perhaps the most important holiday that Japan celebrates. It involves parties attempting to forget the troubles and struggles faced in the previous year (a little ironic for history, no?). This is a long held tradition in the Japanese culture that started when Japan officially moved to the Gregorian calendar. What we have been studying, the post-classical era is an era that involves the evolution of cultures and the establishment of the foundations of traditions, as shogatsu is a great example of this evolution and establishment happening in a more current time frame (the late 1800s, when Japan adopted the Gregorian calendar).