Japanese new year eve is called 大晦日【OO-MISOKA】;
大【OO 】means big and 晦日【MISOKA】is an old way to represent the last day of a month.So, “OO-MISOKA” means “the last day of a year”.There are some unique habits in that day;
1.年越しそば【TOSHIKOSHI-SOBA】Buckwheat Noodle eat on New year eve.
2.紅白歌合戦【KOUHAKU-UTA-GASSEN】TV program broadcast on New year Eve.
3.除夜の鐘【JYOYA-NO-KANE】Big Bell on New year eve.
4.二年参り【NINEN-MAIRI】;Two Year Visit to Shrine.
1.年越しそば【TOSHIKOSHI-SOBA】;Literally means new year’s eve
SOBA buckwheat Noodle.Japanese have a habit to eat SOBA noodle from evening or midnight.
SOBA noodle is thin and long, it reminds us long life time.
“I want to live thick and long!”
“Would you like to eat UDON instead of SOBA?”
It is also symbol of finance lucky because SOBA dough was used to gather gold foil powders when gold crafts are made.
SOBA noodle is usually served in hot TSUYU soup taste of soy sauce andDASHI soup stock.
▶︎ SOBA
2.紅白歌合戦【KOUHAKU-UTAGASSEN】literally mean “Red and White Songs Battle” is a famous TV program show on broadcast on OOMISOKA day evening.
3.除夜の鐘【JYOYA NO KANE】In the OO-MISOKA’s night, temple’s large bells all over Japan are rung 108 times by monks .
108 is said that a number of human’s troublesome earthy desires it makes us worry.
Some temples people
For Japanese people, the last day of a year is very important almost as same as new year’s day.
We call year end and start 年末年始【NENMATSU-NENSHI】as one stream holidays.Usually, holidays are last from 31th December to 8(-10)th January.
