Well, December is here, and everyone is very busy. The old Japanese name for December is Shiwasu, which today is used to mean “the busy time at the end of the year when everyone is running around doing stuff.” Besides buying Christmas presents, scheduling Year-End Parties and preparing for the oh-souji (“big cleaning”) that everyone does before December 31st so they can start the new year with a clean slate, Japanese people are also busy making nengajo, the famous New Year’s Cards they send out to friends to be delivered on the morning of January 1st. Not everyone sends and receives New Year’s Cards, though: if someone is in an official state of mourning after the death of a family member (called mo-chu), they send friends an end-of-year greeting card within the month of December letting them know they’ve suffered a personal tragedy so their friends will know not to send normal nengajo cards. 2011 is the Year of the Rabbit according to the Chinese sexagenary cycle (I have no idea why the Chinese zodiac is called that, but it is), and if you were born in 1939, 1951, 1963, 1975, 1987 or 1999, it’s “your” year — congratulations! J-List will be carrying plenty of awesome rabbit-themed traditional products from Japan, because that’s just the kind of company we are.
2011 is the Year of the Rabbit, so expect a lot of rabbit-themed fan art in the Intarwebs.
