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Time For Happy Family Gatherings

New Year’s celebrations in Japan last until Dondoyaki, which takes place between 15th and 18th January, depending on local shrines. This day sees last year’s talismans burned – as an ultimate step to put the past to rest, and to begin the year with a fresh start. This rite ends the New Year season

An intricate combination of traditions ensures the Japanese New Year’s celebration differs greatly from Western customs for Christmas and the New Year’s Eve. Instead of loud street parties, New Year’s Eve in Japan is usually a time when people are completely devoted to their families. This time of year is rich in tradition and culture. It used to be celebrated based on the Chinese calendar, but in 1873 Japan adopted the Gregorian calendar and 1st January became Japan’s official New Year’s Day. Most businesses are closed from 1st to 3rd January, with the exception of a few retailers. Families usually gather to spend these days together. The occasion has been celebrated for centuries, with its own unique customs.

Ōmisoka, New Year’s Eve, is the second-most important day in Japanese tradition because it marks the final day of the old year and the eve of New Year’s Day, which is the most important day of the year.

As preparation for New Year, people at home and in the offices perform “osoji” an end-of-year cleaning, in order to welcome the “Toshigami-sama” (god of the coming New Year).

A few days after Christmas, the entrances of many homes, shops and buildings in Japan are decorated with a pine and bamboo kadomatsu. This decoration is prepared to welcome the Shinto gods and derives from the Shinto belief that the god spirits reside in trees. Furthermore, the display of pine, which stays green even in winter, and bamboo, which grows quickly and is ramrod-straight, expresses the desire to obtain virtue and strength to overcome adversity.

Entrances to ordinary homes are decorated with a shimenawa, a braided straw rope. Like the kadomatsu, it signifies that the home has been purified in order to welcome the gods.

Japanese consider 31st December a very important day, and it’s not unusual for people to stay up all night on this occasion. As midnight nears, the air is filled with the deep sound of temple bells being rung. The bells are rung 108 times, as the old year fades out and the new one arrives.

Even people who do not ordinarily go to shrines or temples in everyday life go at New Year’s in order to pray for their health and their families’ happiness. Visitors go there to burn incense sticks

Around 11:00 PM on Ōmisoka, people often gather in their homes for one last time in the old year, to have a bowl of toshikoshi-soba or toshikoshi-udon together — a tradition based on people’s association of eating the long noodles with “crossing over from one year to the next”. It is an old custom which started in the Edo period (1603–1868).

On New Year’s Day, it is time to deliver New Year greeting cards – “nengajo”. While young people tend to decorate them on their own and send them by email, traditional postcards are still important for businesses and the older generation for expressing appreciation and best wishes for the New Year. “Nengajo,” many of which are hand-written, also have lottery numbers on them.

On New Year’s Day, children aged 22 and under receive monetary gifts from their parents and grandparents in specially decorated envelopes called “Pochi Bukuro” (Pochi bag). Many department stores and other retailers now open on New Year’s Day, giving children a chance to spend their “otoshidama”, as well as tempting other shoppers with these lucky bags.

The most popular activity on New Year’s Day is “hatsumode”, or first visit to the shrine. In Japan, sunrise on New Year’s Day is believed to have special supernatural powers, and praying to the first sunrise of the year has become a popular practice since the Meiji era (1868–1912). The bigger shrines, like Meiji in Tokyo, Kawasaki Taishi in Kawasaki and Fushimi Inari Taisha in Kyoto, are packed with hundreds of thousands of people from early morning throughout New Year’s Day. Even people who do not ordinarily go to shrines or temples in their everyday life go at New Year’s in order to pray for their health and their families’ happiness. Visitors go there to burn incense sticks. The smoke itself is called “zuko,” and shrine visitors wave it over their heads to purify spirits and their bodies for the New Year.

This is also the time of year when people enjoy mochi soft rice cakes and osechi-ryori, the traditional foods associated with New Year celebrations. O-sechi foods were originally offerings to the Shinto gods, but they are also “lucky” foods intended to bring happiness to the family. Each of the ingredients has a special significance.

The word o-sechi apparently comes from sechiku, which are meals prepared for the gods. Sechiku were served at other times of the year as well — to mark a change in the season, to express hope for a bumper harvest, or to wish for success for one’s children and grandchildren, and safety in the home. The New Year holidays are most closely associated with o-sechi, so the word has come to mean New Year’s meals.

The original reason for needing it to last for seven days is because there is a seven-day period of non-cooking to appease the fire god, Kohji. He would get upset and cause a natural disaster if a fire was made so early in the year. In later years, this non-cooking period has changed to give housewives a rest during the New Year holidays, since they worked so hard until New Year’s Eve.

The food often comes in an elaborate bento box. The vibrant colours and beauty of these boxed culinary treasures represent the hopes of families around the nation. Around 10 varieties of food are placed in the boxes. The ingredients and cooking style may vary slightly, depending on the region and the family, but three are always present: kuro-mame, date-maki and ta-zukuri.

Kuro-mame are black soybeans cooked with sugar and soy sauce. Mame also means “hardworking” or “diligent,” so eating kuro-mame means inviting a willingness to work with energy and enthusiasm during the coming year.

Date-maki is an omelette roll made from eggs mixed with minced white fish paste. In the old days, important documents were stored as scrolls, so rolled egg has another connotation as well — the hope for success while studying or training.

Ta-zukuri adds radiance to the display. It is made by frying dried young anchovies, then glazing them with a simmered mixture of sugar, sweet mirin sake and soy sauce. Anchovies were once used as a fertiliser for the fields, so in o-sechi they represent the hope for a good harvest.

Once upon a time o-sechi was prepared at home. Today, people are buying them in department stores and restaurants.

Mochi soft rice cakes have decorations that consist of two round rice cakes and a mandarin (mikan) on top. Traditionally, these cakes were adorned with a different citrus fruit known as “daidai,” which were considered auspicious as the meaning of the word can be translated to “generation after generation”, representing the family’s wish for a long and prosperous bloodline. The rice cakes are supposed to be an homage to the mirror of the sun goddess Amaterasu. With its round, mirror-like shape, “kagami-mochi” symbolises the renewal of light and energy at the start of a new year.

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