For the Taiwanese, December 25th was Constitution Day, the day when the country took a major stop to becoming a democracy.  To me, it was Sunday and a day off to go shopping.  The stores were open, the sun was shining, and people were going about their days.

And I didn’t hear a single annoying christmas song all day.  Ah, the bliss of silence.  Aside from the very rare artificial tree or cheap decorations, a person wouldn’t have known there was any sort of foreign holiday going on elsewhere in the world.

The only time that religion in Taiwan gets annoying is major holidays like Chinese New Year, Dragon Boat Festival and a few others when anti-social noise polluters start pulling out firecrackers and blowing them at all hours.  (For those who say, “Why are you spoiling other people’s fun, I beg to differ.  You’re spoiling other people’s sanctity and security.)  Thankfully, I was inside a solid building kilometres away from Taipei 101 when the New Year’s fireworks were going off.