New Year beginnings

The New Year good fortune arrow symbolically kills off evil, ensuring you can hit your targets for the coming year

Syncretic celebration

The way Shinto and Buddhism complement each other is never more clearly seen than on the night of Dec. 31. Buddhism is other-worldly, concerned with individual salvation.  Shinto is this-worldly, concerned with rites of passage and social well-being.  At New Year the two religions come together like yin and yang, either side of midnight.  Buddhism sees out the death of the old; Shinto celebrates the birth of the new.

In the dying minutes of the year, people line up at a Buddhist temple to hear the bell riing, or to ring it themselves. By tradition it is rung 108 times, once for every attachment that plagues the human condition.  The atmosphere is solemn, and in the darkness the booming of the large bell carries with it a mournful feel.

New Year fortune arrow to dispel negativity and help you hit your new year’s target
Afterwards, by way of contrast, it’s fun to head straight for a shrine to pick up arrow and amulets for protection through the coming year. Following the contemplative pre-midnight atmosphere comes the a celebratory mood. Suddenly there are laughing voices, bright kimono, and gaudy lights.  Stalls with aspiring yakuza sell candy floss and goldfish.  Here all is jollity and smiles.

‘Akemashite omedeto’ (Congratulations on the New Year) is heard on every side, as people toss coins into offertory boxes over the heads of those in front.  Hot saké is served spiced with ginger.  Young women in kimono stand huddled over their fortune slips. With the blessing of the kami, the Year of the Dragon will surely turn out to be a good one.

Traditions and customs

Boxed delights - osechi ryori is colourful, delicious, and symbolic

New Year is a time of special food too – osechi ryori – beautifully displayed in lunch boxes as only the Japanese can do.  The custom originated with the Heian aristocracy, for whom New Year’s Day was one of the five seasonal festivals.  Since it was taboo to cook during the three day event, food was prepared beforehand.

The New Year food is a feast for the eyes as much as the stomach, full of symbols and auspicious elements. There’s tai fish to signify ‘medetai’ (congratulations), and black beans as a wish for good health (mame can mean bean and health).  Broiled fish cake (kamaboko) is laid out in red and white layers, traditional colours of celebration and suggestive of the rising sun.

Although the first shrine visit of the year (hatsumode) is supposed to be done within the first three days of the year, people pay respects for several days afterwards.  Each year has its own auspicious direction, calculated by Chinese astrology, and one’s supposed to visit the shrine that lies in that direction though few actually follow the convention.  It seems the majority of Japanese visit a shrine at some point, though attendance is difficult to interpret since some people may visit two or more shrines.

Numbers are eagerly collected, as if like GDP they reflect the well-being of the nation.  Meiji Jingu tops the rankings, with just over three million visitors (who counts them, one wonders).  In the Kansai region Fushimi Inari comes top with over two and a half million – one reason why I’ve never dared visit it at New Year, much as I love the place.

Dreaming of sacred Mt Fuji on the first night of the year is particularly auspicious

From now on the New Year is all about firstness and freshness.  There’s the first dream of the year, which if it is about Mt Fuji, a hawk or an aubergine (!) is held to be particularly auspicious.  There’s the first snowfall, the first sign of spring, and the year’s first haiku…

A new year dawning:
First snow upon the mountains
Forming a fresh sheet

One interesting custom is the giving of money to children, known as toshidama. Toshi is the year, and dama is its soul or spirit – so it’s as if one is renewing the spirit of the year through the gift.  No doubt the money helps give extra vigour to the young!
Decorations

The traditional decoration is a length of shimenawa (sacred rice rope), festooned with ferns and the stem of a bitter orange, which is hung on the door.   The fern is an evergreen and a symbol of the lifeforce, while the bitter orange is called daidai, which can also mean ‘generation to generation’.  It shows the continuing vitality of the household.

It’s customary at this time of year to have steamed rice cake (mochi). This was traditionally done by pounding it by hand and eating fresh, but nowadays supermarkets are filled with plastic packages containing two circular rice cakes on top of each other surmounted by a bitter orange.

Kagami mochi (mirror rice cakes) - something to chew on for the New Year

Rice is a symbol of fertility, and the mochi cakes symbolise renewal of vitality through the eating of rice. Circular cakes are known as kagami mochi (mirror rice cakes). According to tradition, the sun-goddess Amaterasu presented her grandson with a circular mirror and told him to treat it as if it were her very self.  It’s why mirrors are often used in shrines as the sacred ‘spirit-body’ of the kami.  In this sense partaking of the round mochi is a kind of sacrament, the Japanese equivalent of communion. 

The prime symbol of the New Year are the kadomatsu decorations seen in front of stores and large buildings. These can be grandiose affairs, and consist of three upright pieces of bamboo of differing length to represent the Taoist triad of heaven, earth and human.

Pine and plum branches complete the arrangement – pine not only as a symbol of constancy and vitality, but because the needles ward off evil spirits.  The plum symbolises the promise of spring (before cherry blossom, the plum was Japan’s favourite tree for its early flowering amidst the austerity of winter.)  Bamboo stands for persistence, a much admired trait among Japanese.

Typical Kadomatsu decorations - they vary in size and also by region (courtesy umeGreen)

A New Year decoration style in Kyushu