Every culture has its own festivals and celebrations. In the case of the Japanese, there is the "Japanese tea ceremony." It's a moment far more significant than simply pouring hot tea into a travel mug to get to work as quickly as possible. Indeed, tea brings people together in the East much more than it does in the West.
The host, elegantly dressed in a magnificent kimono, receives his guests. He will grind the green tea—which can now be called "matcha tea"—into a powder, just as cocoa powder is ground for hot (or cold) chocolate. This eliminates the need for a filter.
The term "ceremony" is very much ours, Westerners, who define it as that which "accompanies the celebration of religious worship" (Larousse online).
However, even in the East, they wonder why keep things simple when you can make them complicated in our modern world? We like to take 36 different paths. That's why they've named this "ceremony" in 3 different ways (two of which are variations of the same word).
- Cha no yu (“hot water for tea”), describing the art surrounding this celebration.
- Sadō or chadō (“tea path”) which is the study of this ceremony.
As if it weren't complex enough, each school of thought has its own little rules, each has its own ritual. It's a bit like the little routine we do every morning: nobody does it exactly like us.
Getting back to the ceremony itself, the host invites his guests to take a seat in a tea room which measures 4 and a half tatami mats, on average (yes, it's not just the Anglo-Saxons who use non-metric measurement systems, but, in good French, that's equivalent to 91cm x 182cm).
The tea ceremony is somewhat similar to Western table etiquette, with its 50 knives and forks: everything must be done according to the rules of the art through a few steps summarized here:
- All utensils are cleaned by the guest (tea bowl, whisk and scoop) and placed on the table in a specific order.
- The host will then measure out the amount of matcha tea they wish to add to each of the guests' bowls.
Of course, a ceremony should have a golden rule (and it's worth noting that this rule should also be practiced in the West). It goes like this: MINIMAL conversation. Let's relax! Yes, we should all gather like this, to relax! We have far too few moments like this in our culture.
With that beautiful thought – silence is golden – this brings to a close this brief interlude on the tea ceremony. It's worth remembering that it's strangely similar to cake frosting: everyone puts their own spin on it, and there are many variations, but the base (sugar, in this case) always remains the same.
With that beautiful thought – silence is golden – this brings to a close this brief interlude on the tea ceremony. It's worth remembering that it's strangely similar to cake frosting: everyone puts their own spin on it, and there are many variations, but the base (sugar, in this case) always remains the same.
