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We only had five people today, but we had a really interesting discussion on meme and the relationship to traditions. We looked at what some of the meme that might be associated with some of the Japanese holidays. One group talked about the Coming-of-Age Day holiday. (Nobody knew when it started or why, but I hope someone can find out.) One of the points that came up in the discussion was that the number of young men wearing kimonos seemed to be increasing and the number of young women renting kimonos instead of getting them as gifts was also increasing. These were seen as examples of the meme evolving. This led to the observation that the drunken behavior at the public ceremonies may lead to the cancellation of those events thus killing off the host for this meme. I guess this a good point as long as we are interpreting Dawkins' theory correctly.

At the end of class we made a list of Japanese Christmas traditions and the homework is to pick one and try to trace it back to the source. Pay careful attention to how it has changed overtime and in Japan. I will do Santa Claus, so please pick another one. If you need ideas post a comment and maybe someone in the class can help you.