How to Throw a Japanese Inspired New Year's Celebration

In Japan there are many traditions that are part of New Year's festivities. Special foods are eaten, postcards are sent, shrines are visited and houses are cleaned. To throw your own Japanese-style New Year, incorporate some of these traditions into your celebration.

Difficulty: Moderately Easy

Instructions

1. Participate in "osojii" in the days before New Year's. This is the year-end cleaning that takes place before New Year's Day. In Japan everyone does a thorough cleaning of homes, garages, cars and even offices. Worn out household items are replaced, and everything should be made ready to begin the new year with a clean slate.

2. Participate in making and eating "osechi-ryori." These are traditional Japanese foods served in a special box, called a "jubako," that is similar to a bento box. In more recent times, sushi and sashimi have been popular osechi foods, as well as soba wheat noodles. Many of the osechi foods have a particular meaning, such as soba noodles for long life, herring roe as a wish to have many children, and dried sardines in soy sauce for an abundant harvest.

3. Participate in sending out "nengajo." These are postcards that you send out to friends and family, and can either be hand decorated or bought already designed. In Japan they try to mail them out to arrive by New Year's Day, and include messages of how family is doing and hopes that everyone will have a good upcoming year. Also include a symbol of the Chinese zodiac for the year that is starting (such as a Cow for the Year of the Cow, or a Rat for the Year of the Rat).

4. Participate in witnessing "hatsuhinode" and other "firsts" of the New Year. Hatsuhinode is the first sunrise of the year, and in Japan people will go to hilltops and mountainsides to see it. They also take special notice of other firsts, such as the first meal, first song, first meeting with family, first day back to work and so on. Take pictures of these things, write poems about them, send a postcard to someone giving him details, or just make a mental acknowledgment of experiencing them.

5. Participate in "otoshidama." This has been a part of Japan's New Year's celebrations for hundreds of years. You place an amount of money into a small, decorative envelope, and then hand it out to the children in your family as well as the children of your friends. Some people will also hand out these envelopes to children that are strangers to them, in an effort to really "spread happiness" to everyone.

Resources

• Osechi Foods