In the west, the New Year is rung in with drinks, countdowns and New Year's Eve parties. But what about in Japan? How do the Japanese bring in the new year?
Read on, and see how to celebrate the New Year Japan-style!
New Years and Christmas
In the west, Christmas is a time to be with family, while New Years is spent with friends partying like it's 1999.
However, until recently there has never been a tradition of Christmas in Japan, and while New Years is a time to be spent with family and relatives, Christmas is a time for dates and friends. But that's an article for another time.
So, in Japan Christmas is for dating, and New Years is for family. A nice little role-reversal from the West. But exactly what is it that the Japanese do during New Years?
Let's go through just a few of the things that a Japanese family does during the New Years season in order!
New Years Cleaning (大掃除)
December is also called shiwasu (師走) in Japan, which literally means "teachers run around." This word reflects that this is considered the busiest month of the year. In order to start the new year with a clean slate, everyone runs around during the new year, cleaning up loose ends and completing unfinished business. Perhaps the biggest of this is 大掃除, which which the cleaning of the entire house is finished by the end of the year in contrast to "spring cleaning" that is common in the US.
And believe me, with how cold it gets in Japan, I really wish they had their cleaning in spring instead of the dead of winter. Nothing is worse than cleaning windows with a bucket of ice-cold water. brrrr!
Osechi Ryori
Japanese New Year's food is called osechi-ryori, and is made up of colorful dishes packed in layers of lacquer boxes, called jubako(重箱). Each dish and ingredient used in osechi has a special meaning for the new year, such as good health, happiness, fertility, a long life, and so forth. The specific dishes in the osechi vary from region to region.
It's a Japanese tradition to eat osechi throughout the New Year's holidays, which traditionally lasts until the 3rd of January. Traditionally, people finish cooking the dishes by New Year's Eve so that they can relax during the New Year, without having to cook. Most of the dishes in osechi can last a few days in the refrigerator or at room temperature.
Recently, people buy ready-made osechi dishes at stores or the super-market instead of cooking them at home. It can be very time-consuming to cook so many kinds of dishes. You can even order a set of osechi at most convenience stores, especially popular among the salary-man and otaku crowds.
Check out our article on Osechi recipes!
Food for new years: Cooking Osechi Ryouri
New Years Cards (年賀状)
2010: The year of the Tiger (寅)
The end of December and the beginning of January are the busiest times for Japanese post offices. The Japanese have a custom of sending New Year's cards (年賀状) to their friends and relatives. It is a similar custom to the Western practice of sending Christmas cards. Their original purpose was to give your faraway friends and relatives tidings of yourself and your immediate family.
Japanese people send these postcards so that they arrive on the 1st of January. The post office guarantees to deliver the Nengajo by the first of January if they are posted by December 29th, and are marked with the word 年賀状. To deliver these cards on time, the post office usually hires students or other part-time workers to help sort and deliver the letters.
It is customary to not send these postcards when one has had a death in the family during the year. In that case, soon after the death, a family member sends a simple postcard to inform friends and relatives that they should not send New Year's cards, out of respect for the deceased.
People get their nengajo from many sources. Stationers sell preprinted cards. Most of these have the Chinese zodiac sign of the New Year as their design, or conventional greetings, or both. The Chinese zodiac has a cycle of 12 years. Each year is represented by an animal. For 2006, famous dogs like Snoopy and other cartoon characters were especially popular. For 2008, Mickey Mouse and Minnie Mouse were popular.
In olden days, people would buy blank cards and hand-write or drawn their own designs. However, with the decrease in the price of printers and specialty printing machines, now many people make their cards on their computer, and many camera, printer and computer makers market towards users making nengajo at the end of the year. Even more young people forgo the paper nengajo altogether, and send email or cellphone messages to their friends on New Years.
Conventional nengajo greetings include:
- 今年もよろしくお願いします (kotoshi mo yoroshiku o-negai-shimasu) (I hope for your favor again in the coming year)
- あけましておめでとうございます (akemashite o-medetō-gozaimasu) (Happiness to you on the dawn [of a New Year])
- 謹賀新年 (kinga shinnen) (Happy New Year)
- 初春 (shoshun) (literally "early spring")
Kouhaku
No, not こくはく(professing one's love), 紅白!
Kohaku Uta Gassen (紅白歌合戦), more commonly known Kohaku, is an annual music show on New Year's Eve produced by Japanese public broadcaster NHK and is broadcast on both television and radio. The show ends shortly before midnight (when NHK switches to a frenzy of "Happy New Year" greetings from around the nation).
Literally "Red and White Song Battle," the program divides the most popular music artists of the year into competing teams of red and white. The "red" team or akagumi (赤組, 紅組) is composed of all female artists (or groups with female vocals), while the "white" team or shirogumi (白組) is all male (or groups with male vocals). The honor of performing on Kohaku is strictly by invitation, so only the most successful Japanese artists and enka singers can perform. In addition to the actual music performances, the costumes, hair-styles, makeup, dancing, and lighting are also important. Even today, a performance on Kohaku is said to be a big highlight in a singer's career because of the show's large reach.
The 紅白 Official Site for 2009
http://www9.nhk.or.jp/kouhaku/
Visiting Shito Shrines (初詣 はつもうで)
Hatsumode is the first shrine visit of the New Year in Japan. Because the New Year vacation for most companies extends until January 3rd, many people visit on the first, second, or third day of the year. However, traditionally visiting the shrine is done at the stroke of midnight on January 1st, so many people crowd the shrines at midnight, with some places having hundreds of thousands of visitors in a single nigt. Generally, wishes for the new year are made, new お守り(o-mamori) (charms or amulets) are bought, and the old ones are returned to the shrine so they can be burned. There are often long lines at major shrines throughout Japan.
A common custom during hatsumode is to buy a written fortune called おみくじ(omikuji). If your omikuji predicts bad luck you can tie it onto a tree on the shrine grounds, in the hope that its prediction will not come true. The omikuji are fairly detailed, and tells you how you will do in various areas in your life, such and business and love, for the coming year.
A happy New Year!
From all of us here at Ippatsu, we wish you a happy new year!
あけましておめでとうございます。
今年もよろしくお願い申し上げます！
