Japanese New Year

Hey guys! It’s freaking cold out here in Okinawa today. How’s there for you?

Since 2021 is flashing its mysterious leg around the corner, today’s topic is

How Japanese Celebrate New Year

Do you know how to say New Year in Japanese?

It’s お正月（おしょうがつ oshoh-gatsu）／正月（しょうがつ shoh-gatsu）.

お is placed to make the word more respected/polite!

Yup, yup, and as you can see that they respect New Years, it’s different from Western New Year celebration. It’s not mainly like throwing a party, drinking, or kissing on a cracker popping.

Now let me generally introduce you what they usually do every year in every houses. Event-wise, I will write it in another article so check it out!

1. Before the New Year

Japanese New Year, お正月 actually starts its preparation in December.

With cleaning.

Every Dec. 13th is the day called 「すすはらいの日」which means “the day to brush off the soot.”

Well, it’s not that they all clean the house on that specific day tho. Nowadays, many people just clean on any days in December.

And they clean everywhere, like the places they don’t clean in everyday cleaning. That’s why this is called 大掃除.（おおそうじ oh-soh-ji）which means “big-cleaning.”

大（おお oh／だい dai）means big and 掃除（そうじ soh-ji）means cleaning!

Oh yeah thanks, Coco-kun!

OK, now you are on the New Year’s Eve!

New Year’s Eve is 大晦日（おおみそか oh-misoka） in Japanese. Yeah, again, 「大」!

We know what 大 means but what is 晦日?

晦日 is a not-really-used-term for “the last day of a month” so, 大晦日, literally meaning “big-last day” is… yes, the last day of a year.

On おおみそか, they eat 年越しそば（としこしそば toshi-koshi-soba）and wait for 除夜の鐘（じょやのかね joya-no-kane） while watching TV programs like 紅白歌合戦（こうはくうたがっせん koh-haku-utagassen）or ガキ使（がきつか gaki-tsuka）, which is my kind of 年越し. haha

Yeah I know. NO WORRIES! Let’s walk thru them.

・年越しそば – “toshi” means year, “koshi” means to cross, and soba is buckwheat noodles. They eat it to wish for long lives after the noodles’ way fo looking so long.

・除夜の鐘 – “kane” is bell. It’s a special term for a temple bell getting gonged for 108 times on the first moments of a year. It is to purify the worldly desires which are said to be 108 in Buddhism. Yeah, Japan is kinda buddhism country.

・紅白歌合戦 – koh in “koh-haku” is red and haku means white so, it means “red and white” cuz they are considered as an auspicious set of colors. 歌（uta Not yuta like Utah.）means song and 合戦 （kassen）is a lil old word for battle. The famous singers of the year or since ever are grouped up into Team Red or Team White and they “battle.” It finishes at 11:45. And then, you wait for 除夜の鐘（joya-no-kane）comes in 15 mins.

・ガキ使 – stands for ガキの使いやあらへんで. I think it’s better not to write the meaning, it doesn’t make sense. lol But it’s f*cking funny if you know what they’re saying or know about Japanese TV. I feel like Korean TV programs’ taste is similar with theirs.

Oh dang, I think I’m done with today. ha, ha, ha…

Hahaha Yeah, OK. It’s aight, I think I got tired too. Now, let’s just take a general look at the cultural stuff. If it’s too much for today, you can always come back to this article whenever you feel like knowing!

2. Happy New Year!

When I hear the 除夜の鐘 on TV, the first thing my family do is sit straight on our legs bent beneath and say Happy New Year! with bowing. It feels weird for you if you sit that formally and say something without bowing, y’know?

??? Haha Sounds weird, don’t it? Well it’s more like “Congratulations on the new year’s breaking. ” Literally translated. Less weird to bow, right?

In Japanese, it’s （新年）明けましておめでとうございます。（（しんねん）あけましておめでとうございます。 shin-nen akemashite omedetoh gozaimasu）In short, 明けましておめでとう。（akemashite omedetoh）which is in casual form or in shorter, あけおめ. lol It’s so short, right? We like shortening words.

Remember this phrase (or copy and paste *wink) and send it to your Japanese friends in real life or HelloTalk!

For you who would like to say more, you can say 今年もよろしくお願いします。 They always say this after 明けましておめでとうございます。Just like the phrase, you can also shorten this and say 今年もよろしく。 to make it impolite. In shorter, ことよろ. So, you may hear あけおめ、ことよろ〜。from a young Japanese.

The next thing my brother and I’d get was お年玉（おとしだま otoshidama）. We children all love this because this is a little envelop with cash inside it! And you get this when you go to the relatives’ houses for New Year visiting from your uncles, aunts, grandpa, grandma… Do my Pacific Islander readers get this too?

For the real talk you wouldn’t see on textbooks, the amount varies depending on their economy/person/how close you are, etc. But of course, we should be grateful. For me, I feel like it’s normally 1,000 yen (about $10) and if it’s your parents, grandparents or uncles and aunties, then it’d be more.

3. Hatsumohde (Going to Shrine)

On the other hand of visiting families, they go to a shrine(s) to thank for the last year and make a wish for the new year.

This is called 初詣（はつもうで hatsu-mohde）.

This action is not for Buddhism but “Shintoism”. Shintoism is animism. Animism is a religious style that believes every thing on earth including natural phenomenon has/is a spirit’s doing. So to say a god/goddess.

Does this sound interesting to you? Like I said, 除夜の鐘 is a temple bell but when the new year comes, we go to shrines.

Plus, for Okinawans, first-borns’ houses have the ancestors’ altar so we thank and pray on them because they have their own religion too. And Japanese people kind of celebrate Christmas and Halloween too so I would say Japanese CULTURE is really religiously generous. (I will talk about how Japanese celebrate Western events on another post!)

4. Foods

Last but not least, foods! This is what makes an occasion an occasion, isn’t it?

This is おせち（osechi kanji:御節）/おせち料理（ryōri）. This is a GOOD one. lol Look at that big 伊勢海老(Ise-ebi spiny lobster), my friend. Please don’t expect this when you come to Japan for a homestay. haha

Even though おせち has kanji, it is usually written in hiragana(the simplest among the Japanese writing system). I will write about Japanese writing system too!

おせち is consisted of so many dishes such as fish eggs, black beans, steamed fish paste, rolled omelette cut into thick slices… Wait, why do they sound a lil disgusting? XD

Well, it tastes good! And, since お正月 is a joyous event that you wanna bring happiness, luck and health, each dish has a meaning.

The fish eggs are for many descendants and prosperity of the family after fish’s bearing many eggs. Black beans are under the wish to work diligently till you get “black”(tanned) and live diligently(be healthy).

So many dishes and so many meanings but all of them are actually salted/processed well to last for three days or so. Why? Because during お正月, to welcome the year god you shouldn’t use fire or knife. That’s why the foods must be able to last long. So, when you have the chance to have them, maybe it tastes very salty for Japanese cuisine.

This is 鏡餅（かがみもち kagami-mochi）.

This seems to be a real classic one but nowadays it’s like this! ↓

I took this at home right now. haha

So, everything is plastic or paper but inside of that white dome which is supposed to be mochi(rice cake), there are packs of mochi.

You can buy this at almost all the retail stores in Japan. There are some choices of size.

鏡（かがみ kagami）means “mirror” and 餅（もち mochi）is “rice cake.”

The reason why it has 鏡 in its name is how the rice cakes are shaped round like a mirror. A round mirror is seen in shrines too. It symbolizes the sun and the sun is the supreme god in Japanese mythology(shintoism) so that’s why. The round shape is supposed to mean a heart=soul.

We don’t really know how all of those connect and mean something altogether but I guess it’s the feeling that counts, y’know?

And the last one I introduce is お雑煮（おぞうに ozoh-ni）.

You crack that 鏡餅 open on Jan. 11th(this is called 鏡開き kagami-biraki) and this is one of the ways to use the mochi.

They eat the mochi to have the power or soul of the year god with other ingredients. As you can see in the picture, the soup has little steamed fish paste(behind the carrot) and carrot and radish and more, less, or other ingredients depending on the region that you live in.

What I realized for the first time here (cuz I’m Okinawan and we don’t eat おせち or おぞうに) is that I think they use the leftovers from the おせち and put them into the soup!

Anyways, these are among the dishes that they eat in お正月. I would really love to have them once. I’mma go eat my Toshi-koshi Okinawa soba, then!

Summary

They have a lot of holidays and celebrations including the ones from other cultures. However, Japanese New Year includes a bunch of their own cultural factors.

It depends on a person but for me, I think the end of a year and the start of another one is when you can feel Japan and its white breath.

So now find your Japanese possible friends and tell them 明けましておめでとう。to make friends with them when it’s the New Year!

OK, if you want to ask something, please feel free to write down in the comment section down below! ↓↓↓

よいお年を〜！(yoi otoshi-o “Have a good year” a little casual)