Japanese New Year Symbols

Traditional foods for the Japanese New Year

The Japanese New Year, or Oshagatsu, is the most celebrated holiday in Japan. Everything from special meals and custom decorations to greeting cards and visits to temples is wrought with meaning and tradition as the country ushers in January 1. The Japanese believe that the symbols of the celebration will bring them joy, success, good health and a good harvest.

Symbolic Foods

Rice cakes, symbolizing health and a long life, are eaten as sweetened desserts as well as simmered in savory broths. Ozoni, or rice cake soup, is typically prepared and enjoyed as the first meal of the New Year. Many restaurants and department stores sell fancy meals in lacquer boxes, called osechi, for the holiday. Other foods, including buckwheat noodles, sweet beans, sushi and fish eggs are considered good luck and represent happiness, fertility and prosperity.

Symbolic Decorations

Homes are decorated with the traditional kadomatsu, a formal arrangement comprised of bamboo, pine and flowers. Most households and businesses also display a decoration called kagami mochi, which is made of two rice cakes, one perched on top of the other, and topped with an orange or tangerine.

Symbolic Cards

Just as Americans celebrate Christmas by sending out greeting cards to friends and relatives, the Japanese send out New Year's Day postcards to wish their beloved well. The post office delivers the postcards, called nengajo, before or on the first day of January. In addition, adults give children decorated envelopes enclosed with money called otoshidama as a holiday custom.

Symbolic Gestures

The Japanese believe that cleaning the house before the New Year sweeps out the bad luck and prepares the household to receive blessings. They also believe that the ritual of drinking otoso, a medicinal tonic made of sweetened rice wine and herbs, will protect each family member from sickness in the year to come.

Spiritual Symbolism

Just before midnight on the last day of the year, the bells toll 108 times at temples around Japan, which signifies the number of worldly desires from which people must be purified. The Japanese typically visit a shrine sometime on New Year's Day, with some making the trek right after midnight. Many of the temple visitors dress in their holiday best or in traditional kimonos.

References

• "Culinary Treasures of Japan," John Belleme and Jan Belleme, 1992
• "Japanese Cooking: A Simple Art", Shizuo Tsuji, 1980