Here in central germany not many. We abolished a lot of holidays, so it's mainly christmas and easter left and birthday parties. For christmas you eat some bird (turkey, goose, duck) or some fish and for easter it's the same and for birthdays it's less. A bit simple now I think of it.

Death by overwork is an acknowledge issue. Companies don't care. Even when they are sued as a result by the relatives.

I disagree. Christmas cake from the UK (also sometimes used for wedding cakes) is the best going, especially when laced with large amounts of alcohol. And if made right, can last for years and still be edible.

Of course, it doesn't last more than a few hours when I get some...

Oh, I do love British Christmas cake (and mince pies, and Christmas pudding), but my girlfriend hates raisins and anything raisin-like, which puts her out of the equation. I had a Japanese translation colleague over one Dezember and he introduced me to the Japanese Christmas cake, and that's been her gateau of choice since. It's a struggle to decide between them.

I always wondered if the "Japanese style strike" (working harder instead of stopping) was fact or myth. Nobody explained it to me while I was there.


More to the topic. I'm not sure if this qualifies, but I would put the cider season back home as a feast. During the February-May period, apple cider is made and special traditional restaurants (let's call them cider houses, in lack of any better translation) open their doors. Traditional menu involves codfish, steak and all the cider you can drink; all this followed by a night out. I wouldn't count it as a family event (unless it's among similarly aged cousins), but I still consider it as a major feast. I always go back home for this at least once every year, the 150€+ it costs me is well worth it.

In the Netherlands we have christmas where we gather around and have dinner, and that's about it :P.
No gifts traditionally on x-mas though, we have our own giving saint called Nicolaas on 5th of December who brings us all a treat.

Haha, I remember when I started working in Belgium (in December) and a few days after I started I got some doll made of chocolate on my desk. I thanked people for the "welcome aboard" present, turned out to be a generic company gift for the Nicolaas guy. That was embarrassing.

Haha, at least you were grateful.When you're a kid you always get told that if you're bad, Saint Nicolaas and his helpers will take you back to Spain in a bag. Now that I'm 32, that doesn't sound so bad anymore, but rather tempting, especially in the winter :P.

If you knew the police over there as I do, you would probably think otherwise.

And now I realize I was intrigued by why this guy would bring people to Spain, and I looked it up back in the day, but I no longer remember. Now I have to look it up again.

Christmas eve is the big family meal here.

That is weird. I'm going to look it up too

Here in Aus, there are probably two that spring to mind.

Christmas Day is the big one. The whole family around for a big feast and a day of great atmosphere.

The other one I can think of is Australia Day, which involves firing up the barbie for snags and steaks and the like.
And before someone says it, no shrimp. We don't even call the things shrimp...

Edit: another couple sprung to mind. We have a little celebration for New Years amongst the family, and we celebrate Chinese New Year with the usual big feast (one of the many advantages of your Mother being Chinese).

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Huelga_a_la_japonesa