Japanese Culture & Traditions
Thank for your interest in Japanese Culture & Traditions. Have you visited my other pages, such as Introducing Mary Ohno, Kabuki Academy, and Japanese Language?
On this page, I would like to introduce you to timely Japanese culture and/or traditional events. Almost every month we Japanese have an event to celebrate and I'm positive that you want to know what it is all about. You can visit this page every month and find it out.
The topic of December 2011 is
"OOMISOKA"or "The New Year's Eve"
OOMISOKA or the New Year's Eve is the busiest day of the year for
preparing the New Year, in Japan. Towards the end of December, people start cleaning the house in every nook and corner, pounding ricecake "MOCHI", decorating New Year's Pine Decorations "KADO MATSU" at the gate, offering the ricecake "KAGAMI MOCHI" up on the altar. Also preparing the New Year's dishes "OSECHI RYOORI" which they eat
for at least three days, January 1st, 2nd and 3rd, instead of having regular breakfast. The biggest dinner of the year,
similar to that of Thanksgiving or Christmas dinner in U.S.A. While, at the temples,
temple bells ring out 108 times from the old year through the new year to get rid of
the bad lucks in the old year and welcome the good lucks in the new year. Many people
visit temples or shrines from the midnight of the New Year's eve in order
to make the first visit to the shrines or temples and pray for good luck,
good health, prosperity, happiness, etc. for the coming new year. Especially the year 2011 was painful
year for Japanese as BIG TSUNAMI hit northern part of Japan and lost many lives and lost their houses.
I sincerely
hope that the year 2012 will turn out to be more peaceful year to you and yours.
Wishing you a Happy New Year 2012, a year of "TATSU" "dragon" !!!!!
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