A Banquet in Japan

Title

A Banquet in Japan

Language

English

Year

1935

Subject

Customs--Japan

Table etiquette--Japan

Rights

In Copyright - Educational Use Permitted

Abstract

An article on the elaborate food customs and traditions of Japanese people.

Fulltext

12 THE YOUNG CITIZEN Foreign Customs A Banquet m Japan IF YOU take a boat in Manila After the tea the same girls bring and go to Japan, in eight days in hot napkins. These pieces of you will be there. Japan is a cloth serve to clean the visitors' beautiful country, and the Japanese faces. Then follows the third people are very industrious. Many course, the pea salad. The girls of their customs and habits are dif- prepare the main dish, the skiaki, ierent from ours. Let us go to a on a little gas stove in the middle Japanese banquet and watch their of the table. The dish consists of a quaint way of taking their meals. big piece of fat, green onions, beans, Food is served on a low table sugar, soya-bean sauce, and :finally where the members of the family and the visitors squat and cross their legs. This part of their cus· tom reminds one of our own old· i.neces of meat. These bits of meat <1re mixed with raw eggs in saucers. J nstead of spoons and forks, Che Japanese, like the Chinese, use fashioned way of eating. Some of chopsticks throughout the entire our poor families to this day reg· meal. ularly take their meals at dutangs. Conversation ·beginS rn be inter· Uulang 1s the Tagalog name tor csting. · 1 he educated Japanese loves the low dinner table. ln Japan the dmmg room, as any other room in the house, is perfectly clean and orderly because the wooden shoes the people wear LO talk aoout music, art, history, anct literature. 1 ney arc very pohce • ma patient. At cne.,. enct or cne amner a geish(I arnves. A geisha is a Japanese are removed before entering the !>mgmg ana ctancmg girl. ;::,ne i.s house. The room has very sim· ar.compameo Lly anocner woman pie decorations. 1t is almost bare with a sna mi·st!n or !uce. 1 h< ot color except tor the brighc·petal· woman with the lute sits aown Feb1·uary 1935 The Sampaguita By Dr. Maria Pastrana·Castrence THE sam. paguita is the national flower of the Philippines. 1 am sure you know how it looks like. It is white and small and very fragrant. At night when the flowers bloom, they give a cool sweet odor. New flowers blossom .ill the year. They come out most abundantly, however, in the dry months oI April and May. The buds of this flower are U'iually made into rosaries aild necklaces. This is done by pass· ing abaca fibers through the buds. llang·ilang flowers and roses are tied at the end of the necklaces. Young women are fond of wearing these garlands around their necks . The sampaguita plant is a slend· er, vine·like shrub. It is about two meters tall. It grows best when it i'i allowed to lean and climb on frnces. The leaves are oval. They are somewhat pointed at the ends. They are arranged in pairs which <i.:-e opposite to each other on the Jed tlowers on pots at the Jow cro1:1s-1eggea ana oegms to ptay on stem. It is said that the sampaguita is shde open and shut. tlesides an· Or rather skips, in her white cocton ;1 native of India. The ·Hindus windows. Uoors and wrnaows her msuumenc. 1 he geisha ctances, other small table at the corner, the socks m tront of the people in the call this flower balphul. It is named only piece of furniture in the room room. All the men clap their s;1mpaga in Pampango, manol in is the dining tables. Things have hands co beat measure with her V isayan, and sampaguita or kam· ,_:upot in Tagalog. In naming this dancing. ·Then, one of them invites fk,wer kampupot, the Tagalogs are no importance in a Japanese room: the people are everything. the geisha to dance a one.step with misled. The real hampupot is The typical banquet in that neighbor country of ours takes place him. another flo~er belonging to the After a round of dancing, the same family as the sampaguita. Some people think that the name in a simple but impressive manner. geisha and her companion with the Two girls in bright silk kimonos lute sit with the guests and drink enter the room. Their dresses ar~ ~ake, the favorite wine of Japan. beautifully decorated with figures. The sake is served steaming hot. They carry trays on which little The party ends in a quiet way, and cups of green tea and pieces of green the guests, happy and entertained, candy are placed. depart for home. immpaguita was taken from sampaga. Sampaga is defined by a Tag.1log dictionary as a kind of flower similar ro jasmine. Another book says that it is another name for flower. The old folks in the Tagalog re· (Please turn to page 21)

Date Issued

I(1) February, 1935

Publisher

Young Citizens

Media