New Year’s Day is very important season for Japanese people.
From January 1st to 3rd, many companies and shops are closed, families in the distance gather and spend the New Year period together.
I’ll introduce the traditional way to spend New Year’s Days in JAPAN.
1.NEW YEAR CUSTOMS
1-1Each houses decorate
門松【Kadomatsu】,
注連縄【SHIME-NAWA】,
鏡餅【KAGAMI-MOHCI】.
These are ornaments to welcome the New Year’s God.
1-2As 初詣【HATSU-MOUDE】,we will go to a shrine to greet and pray KAMI of the era the past year’s thank and pray for a new year’s health and happy.
If you visit shrine in the midnight on 31 December and stay the moment there new year comes, it called二年参り【NINEN-MAIRI】literally mean “Two Years Praying”
1-3お年玉【O-TOSHI-DAMA】is a custom that children get some money in very small and fancy envelopes called ぽち袋【POCHI-BUKURO】.
Old-fashioned New Year ‘s play has feathers,There are kite flying,
lucky laughter puzzle, daffodils, spinning, etc.
1-4初売り【HATSU-URI】福袋【FUKU-BUKURO】
1-5Lion dance is seen in various places.
2.NEW YEAR FOODS
As a special cuisine of New Year ‘s Day, we have お節料理【OSECHI】auspicious foods wishing for a health, long life tome, happy in rayed racker boxes, お雑煮【O-ZOUNI】soup of MOCHI rice cake and various ingredients, お屠蘇【O-TOSO】spiced kind of sake drunk
wishing new year’s health.There are various kinds of Local New Year foods in each era.
ESSAY;元旦【GAN-TAN】
The morning of the first day of the year is called 元旦【GANTAN】 .
元【GAN】 is the basis of the beginning of things,
旦【TAN】 is a kanji representing how the sun rises.
GANTAN means exactly the early morning of 1st January.
GANTAN morning is in a very quiet and peaceful atmosphere.
Some people climb mountains and worship the first sunrise of the year.
年神【TOSHI-GAMI】;New year’s God spirit
Recent Japanese people do not have much consciousness, but when you learn God of the new year
makes it easy to understand the meaning of New Year events.
It is said that you will bring ancestors along with the sunrise of the first sunrise.
According to one theory, they come twice a year New Year and お盆【O-BON】.
There are also people who will pick them up when you go to a shrine for 初詣【HATSU-MOUDE】,
the first visit to shrine of the year.
Common three pieces of decorative things for New Year ‘s Day
- 門松【KADO-MATSU】Literally mean “Pine tree at Corner”.
A pair of pine tree and bamboo tree decorations put in front of the gate of each houses.
年神【TOSHI-GAMI】;Spirit of the new year come down to this as it a land mark. - 注連縄【SHIME-NAWA】
Twisted rope made of straws decorated with papers or DAIDAI orange.
It is invisible barrier of TOSHI-GAMI new year god’s place and it is believed that evils could not come into the area inside the SHIME-NAWA rope.
Recently Round shaped one like Christmas lease is also popular. - 鏡餅【KAGAMI-MOCHI】Literally means mirror rice cake.
large and small Rice cake flat circle shaped like mirrors are rayerd, It become the ornament that the
TOSHI-GAMI new year’s KAMI stay at through new year days.
▶︎The Mirror 天照大神 御神体 is 伊勢神宮【ISE-JINGU】We brake it and eat cook into 雑煮【ZOUNI】or 【ANKORO-MOCHI】it on 11th January. - ▶︎鏡開き【KAGAMI-BIRAKI】
In fact, these are all to welcome the “year god” that you can come to the new year.As you know in Japan, there are a lot of Gods that are said to be 8 million (YAOYOROZU).
▶︎ Japanese god ／KAMI link
Among them, there is a year of God who will be newly visit every year.
A famous folklore scholar 柳田邦男【YABAGIDA-KUNIO】 believes that a simple private god who believed in three gods, one who guards a year, a god of guardian of farming, and an ancestor who guards the house, as one god is a year god.
お雑煮【O-ZOUNI】
ZOUNI is a soup dish eaten in the New Year which contains MOCHI (rice cakes) and other ingredients like vegetables meat fish, and it is usually
