What Christmas is to the Westerners, New Year's is to the Japanese, although congratulations and greetings
are not merely confined to the first day of the New Year, but at any time between the first and fifteenth. This
is the time of universal peace and good will in Japan; when the inhabitants of the little Empire prepare to start
life anew, with all bad feelings done away with and fine promises and resolutions for the future. In fact, the
first of January bears the significant title of Gan-san (the Three Beginnings), meaning
the beginning of the year, the beginning of the month and the beginning of the day. One might be tempted to add
to this "The beginning of a new life," for so realistically and conscientiously do the Japanese try to observe
the almost national rule of striving earnestly to make themselves better at this time that it becomes an almost
literal belief with them that they have succeeded. That is a pretty truth, I think—that a good belief
generally tends to make the good reality.
