Stuck to a wall of the office at the Paracas Museum where I work is a list of the birthdays of the staff members who work at the museum, and on birthdays we eat lunch together and celebrate by eating cake. Unbelievably, my first day at work was actually my birthday, but the staff are so scrupulous about celebrating birthdays that we celebrated my birthday that day with a big chocolate cake they had made for this mysterious Japanese person, a complete stranger.
I never imagined that the people destined to be my workmates would celebrate my birthday on my first day at work. I was really surprised and thrilled.
I also found a list of the birthdays of all the classmates beside the blackboard at an elementary school I visited to give a lesson. It seems to me that Peruvians feel quite a bit more strongly than Japanese people that you should celebrate everyone’s birthday all together, whether it’s at work or at school. I like this Peruvian custom of celebration. The reason for that is that your birthday only comes around once a year, so I think that as a human it is a nice, happy thing to get lots of good wishes from everyone just on that one day and to have a joyful day. Since arriving in Peru, it has somehow seemed to me that people are always celebrating, but it’s kind of fun spending time together celebrating someone’s something or other together, eating, dancing, and listening to music up loud.
People also celebrate Mother’s Day, Father’s Day, and so on, not just birthdays, at the workplace in a similar way. In Japan Mother's Day and Father's Day feel more like days when you give appreciation to your own parents, and so far in my life I have always only ever thought of those days as days when you do something to congratulate “your own parents.” In Peru, it’s a little different. You congratulate all mothers and fathers. You celebrate people who are other people’s parents, even if they are not your own, all together.
Sunday the 16th of June was Father’s Day, like in Japan, so I got 9 presents to celebrate my colleagues and the people who have helped me in some way who are someone’s father (men who have children). In Japan, I had never bought a lot of presents for a number of fathers on Father’s Day, but I thought it really was an interesting experience. As you might expect, I thought it was a little weird giving presents to the fathers of other people, while not giving anything to my own father in Japan, so on the day before Father’s Day I ordered on Amazon a 24-can pack of Asahi beer (Asahi Super Dry Nama Jokki Kan - Kojo Dekitate no Umasa Jikkan Pack [24 Pack of Asahi Super Dry – Draft Mug Cans – Experience the Great Taste of Freshly Brewed Beer Straight from the Brewery]), which had been released on June 14th. I managed to get it to my father on Father’s Day without any problems. I think that I’m using Amazon more effectively now than I ever have before. Isn’t it amazing that even though I am on the opposite side of the earth, I can use a next-day delivery service, the same as when I was in Japan? So, today I have brought you a little of the culture of celebration in Peru.
Well, here’s where I say “Adios!” This has been Shoko Yamamoto from Paracas, Peru.
