New Year

New Year's table decoration "kagami-moti"The New Year (O-Shogatsu) in Japan is the most beloved and colorful holiday, and the New Year holidays (from December 28 to January 4) are days of rest for everyone. During this period, almost all business life in the country freezes. Previously, O-shogatsu was celebrated according to the lunar calendar, but from the end of the XIX century the Japanese switched to the celebration according to the conventional Gregorian.

The New Year is associated with many different rituals, games and ceremonies. Preparation for the holiday begins long before it comes. New Year’s fairs are held where you can buy everything from souvenirs and clothes to ritual items. Hamaimi are blunted arrows with white plumage, which protect the house from evil and evil forces. Takarabune are boats with rice and other “treasures” on which the seven gods of luck are seated. The talisman for happiness - kumade (literal translation - "bear paw") is in great demand. It looks like a bamboo rake. It is believed that they are very convenient to rake in happiness. With each purchase, shoppers receive a traditional figure of an animal, under the sign of which the new year will pass.

One of the most striking details of the decoration of a Japanese dwelling before the New Year is kadomatsu (“pine at the entrance”). Kadomatsu – a greeting to the Deity of the New Year holiday – is usually made from pine, bamboo, woven from rice straw rope (shimenawa), decorated with fern branches, tangerines, and sometimes a bundle of algae and dried shrimp. Each of the details of this decoration has its own symbolism.

Kadomatsu is now entirely handmade.

For a long time there was a custom to decorate the house with bouquets of willow or bamboo branches with Moti suspended on them in the form of flowers, fish, fruits. These ornaments, called mochibana, are painted yellow, green or pink, installed in a prominent place or hung from the ceiling at the entrance, so that the deity of the New Year – Toshigami, “entering the house”, immediately recalled his “duty” to take care of hospitable hosts in the coming year.

The arrival of the New Year at midnight from December 31 to January 1 has been heralded for more than a thousand years by 108 bells coming from Buddhist temples at midnight. According to Buddhist beliefs, a person is burdened with 108 pernicious passions. And every bell on New Year's Eve drives away one of these misfortunes.

When the last blow strikes, people go outside to celebrate the new year with the first rays of the sun. Many believe that it is at this moment that seven gods of happiness sail to Japan on their magical ship. Each god symbolizes one of the good qualities: Daikoku - luck, Ebisu - sincerity, Banton - friendliness, Bishamon-ten - dignity, Jurojin - longevity, Hotei - generosity, Fukurokuju - benevolence.

Of particular importance is the family New Year meal, which begins on the evening of December 31 (omisoka no yoru). It passes quietly and properly without noisy conversations and table songs. Nothing should distract you from thinking about what awaits everyone in the coming year.

The morning of the first day of the new year begins for every Japanese with the reading of greetings (nengadze) and painstaking verification of compliance with the list of sent cards and the list of received ones. If, God forbid, they do not coincide, then the missing congratulations are sent immediately, which will be delivered to the addressee in the coming days. In the afternoon, the Japanese go to pay visits to relatives and acquaintances, as well as to everyone who was close to them last year. Sometimes these visits are limited to visitors leaving business cards on a specially displayed tray.