＜December 13th＞

The day to start preparing for New year.

松迎え【MATSU-MUKAE】preparing pine trees and bamboo for 門松【KADO-MATSU】.

煤払い【SUSU-HARAI】House cleaning at the end of year.

餅突き【MOCHI-TSUKI】Preparing MOCHI rice paste for new year.

 

●松迎え 【MATSU-MUKAE】 means “welcoming pine tree”.

Preparing for making 門松【KADO-MATSU】.
In old times, people went to mountain to take pine trees and bamboo by theirselves.

Recently, people order KADO-MATSU at specialty shops or flower shops. Nowadays, they are also sold at internet shops and home centers.

▶︎How to make KADO-MATSU by oneself

●煤払い【SUSU-HARAI】 means “sweeping soot”.

House Cleaning before new year coming.
Cleaning from corner to corner of 1 year, it is said that 年神【 TOSHI-GAMI】 New Yer God will come down with many benefits.

During the Edo era, on December 13, Edo Castle was doing  soot cleaning of 神棚【KAMI-DANA】KAMI God shelf and 仏壇【BUTSU-DAN】Buddhist altar.

It is rare to use hearth in recent houses, so there is no soot stains nowadays though,temples or shrines have traditional soothing event every year.

 

●餅突き【MOCHI-TSUKI】

Preparing 餅【MOCHI】 rice paste for New year.Pounding rice  with pestle and mortar

Put steamed rice into large wood mortar and pound it by wood pestle.

Combination of two person’s movement is important.
One person pounds and the other turns clump of MOCHI many times.

Nowadays, it is seldom making  MOCHI in house except countrysides, 餅付き【MOCHI-TSUKI】event is held in new year or festival. Usually at 餅付き【MOCHI-TSUKI】event ,many people come together and fresh-made MOCHI covered with 餡子【ANKO】or きなこ【KINAKO】are served for free.

 

 ▶︎BUY A SET OF 餅付き【MOCHI-TSUKI】

▶︎EVENT OF 餅付き【MOCHI-TSUKI】