Vegan Piggy Cookies ビーガンブーちゃんクッキー [Recipes Sweets スウィーツレシピ]
Happy Lunar New Year !
In many Asian countries, the new year is celebrated according to the lunar calendar.
Japan also used to celebrate it during this season until early Meiji Era which is not so long ago.
It is the season that early spring is starting, and the plum blossoms are blooming.
But I had never thought why we celebrate the new year on January 1of the modern calendar until I was asked by some of my friends while I lived in Singapore why Japanese people do not celebrate the Lunar New Year.
In Singapore the biggest new year is Lunar New Year which is also called Chinese New Year. (Singapore is a multi-racial country, so there are several new years to be celebrated.)
It was a kind of surprising and interesting fact for me that people there preserve each race’s tradition as I got the impression that the country and people there were more westernized and progressive than Japan and Japanese people.
At that time, I was a young Japanese language teacher.
“The language is deeply related with its culture, and without knowing, understanding and being able to explain it, one cannot really teach the language well to the foreign students. “
That is what I found after I started teaching Japanese to foreign people in a foreign country.
“Why do Japanese people celebrate the new year on January 1st of the modern calendar, not the lunar calendar?”
My search had started.
It was unfolded that many of the traditional events I had been celebrating since my childhood are not following the actual dates, which means they are celebrated irrelevant to the seasons and do not make any sense. May be obon/the day to honor the ancestors, and otsukimi/moon viewing day are the only two events that Japanese people are still following the lunar calendar.
I think very few Japanese people are paying attention to these facts and most of the people are using unsuitable words to express the natural phenomena of the seasons and practicing unmatching seasonal events.
The words we often use for the new year such as
“迎春/geishun/welcoming spring”,
“干支/zodiac”,
“七草粥/shichikusagayu/porridge with seven kinds of wild spring plants”
are effective only when they are used during the new year of the lunar calendar.
Spring is too far away from January 1st, zodiac is the concept that was born from the lunar calendar, those seven kinds of wild plants are not showing their faces yet in January of the modern calendar, so the farmers have to grow them artificially in the green houses using unnecessary fossil fuel to meet the demand of people to make the porridge on the 7th of January.
I mentioned in previous post that the year of pig had started.
When I said it, I was following the current custom that general Japanese people are practicing.
But, in fact the year of pig has just started.
Ironically, Japan is now on full alert of the outbreak of classical swine fever/hog cholera, and 16000 piggies have been culled so far.
It is normal that those farmed animals are treated as mere commodities, therefore no medical attentions are given and they just have to endure their pains and sufferings.
All the media is reporting how big the damages are and sympathizing with the farmers and business owners.
What about piggies?
They are the ones suffering the most.
They are a living creature who feels pain and fear just like us.
My heart sinks whenever I hear the reports and opinions with no regretting words towards them.
Visit these sites to learn more about pigs.
How did you find ?
Aren't they adoreble ?
O.K, let me share the recipe of vegan piggy cookies now to be compassionate to them.
After making, may be you can also share them with somebody and start your conversation about piggies and pass those information that you gained from those sites.
Anyway those cookies look so kawaii and taste yummy, no one could resist eating them.
( or some might think too cute to eat them ! )
Here you go !
