(Next month to December)

My six-year-old daughter and three-year-old son are looking forward to Christmas! My son keeps asking me when Santa is coming. My daughter understands Santa is coming on the 25th of December and that’s the day he leaves children Christmas presents.

In Japan, we don’t call months by name like “December” in English. Instead, it’s called the 12th month, January being the first months then counting up to the 12th month. We also have traditional names for each month. For example, “Shiwasu” 師走 (December, literally translates to “teacher + run.” The name stemmed from the fact that this month is so busy that you even see teachers running around to finish things by the end of the year.  Nowadays it’s nothing unusual to spot teachers run to do things but a long time ago, they were much more respected and seen as kind of authority figures. So they usually didn’t need to run for any reason.

My daughter knows only the normal way to say months in Japanese, such as the 11th month, 12th month. She knows that January comes after December in English. But she asked me, “When does the 13th month come?” in Japanese.