mimimimi
Joined: 21 Nov 2007
Posts: 53
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 Posted: Sat Dec 22, 2007 1:47 am Post subject: Birthday gift for 65-year-old woman - Ideas anyone? |
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| I'm in the position of having to give a significant birthday gift to a Japanese woman who will turn 65 soon. I recall hearing once that this is a special birthday for women which requires a traditional gift of blank . I vaguely remember something about a red jacket, but I think that's for someone turning 60. I could be wrong. Does anyone know what the traditional gift is, or even if one exists for this age? |
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amphivera
Joined: 05 Sep 2007
Posts: 27
Location: China
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| Posted: Tue Dec 25, 2007 2:28 pm Post subject: |
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You're right about 60 being a special birthday. It's known as kanreki, symbolizes one's return to birth:
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The Eto(Japanese calendar) is a ten year cycle and twelve year cycle at the same time. Then, it makes it a sixty year cycle to complete the full rotation. When the planet Jupiter rotates around the sun five times. Kanreki means "return of the year", thus an individual will return to the exact year one was born on one�s 60th birthday. One will wear Akai-chanchanko, or "Red Tang Boy Style Gown."
The reason of Red is "Aka-chan(Dear Red one)" is an endearment for an infant. The reason of Tang(Chinese) Boy is Japanese babies used to have Tang Boy hairstyle before Meiji Restoration. So, in short, Kanreki is "return to infancy," or "reborn", like the iconography of the infant Buddha on the lotus. |
In addition to kanreki 70, 77, 80, 88 and 99 are also special birthdays.
I've never heard of 65 being special in a traditional sense though if I'm not mistaken that's the age at which citizens begin receiving a lot of senior benefits. Officially, the term koreisha (elderly person) as mandated by the WHO is applied to persons 65 or older and I'm pretty sure Japan follows the same guidelines.
As for gifts, a couple of suggestions:
- Flowers (always appreciated by women)
- A travel voucher (perhaps a flexible onsen package)
- Any number of health-related items. A massager, for example. Or gift certificates to a massage place (i.e. Temomin) or one of those aromatherapy/reflexology places.
Obviously, it all depends on your relationship to this person, and your budget. In my experience, older Japanese (especially men) prefer gifts with high fungibility. Unless you know the person really well, it's much safer to stick with vouchers or consumable goods/services (i.e. an expensive boxed tea set) rather than a quirky item that might not match that person's tastes.
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Hope this helps. |
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