New Year ('shōgatsu' ) is undoubtedly the most important holiday in Japan. And as with many other things in this country, expect it to be different!
In contrast to Western cultures, the New Year's Holidays are generally not a time for parties and fireworks (the latter being reserved for summer festivals), but a time for reflection and to be spent with family - actually not unlike what Christmas is to many in the Western world.
Not knowing that when I arrived here back in 1996 meant that I was in for quite a shock. Talk about wrong expectations... In fact, the experience of my first New Year's Eve in Japan felt so anti-climactic that the very next year, my wife and I instead chose to fly to Hawai'i to ring in the New Year there - in T-shirt and shorts (which didn't feel quite right) and countdown parties (which definitely did).
There are various traditions attached to New Year in Japan, most of which are being practised by the majority of the population and which carry a lot of symbolism.
Take the 'New Year's cleaning', for instance. Forget about spring cleaning in Western cultures! Why clean the house during balmy springtime when you can do it in the dead of winter instead? There are good reasons for that, though: It is to welcome a new year with a spick and span house or apartment, to symbolise a new beginning. And as an added benefit, the physical exercise you get from it can help offset some of the excess calories people consume during the holidays!
When it comes to New Year's food, then two things stand out: First, there is the buckwheat noodles ('soba' ), which are typically served on New Year's Eve and which symbolise longevity.
And then there is 'osechi-ryōri ', traditional Japanese New Year food that started in the Heian period (794-1185) and is easily recognisable by their special stackable boxes not unlike bento boxes, though the contents are very different and full of symbolism for the New Year.
There was a time when it was considered taboo to use the hearth for cooking in the first three days of the new year. So the New Year's meals were prepared in advance and then marinated or preserved. And while this essentially meant that the wife was slaving away in the kitchen in the run-up to the New Year's holidays, it also gave her three days of (well-deserved!) rest in the new year. Nowadays, most people buy elaborate (and expensive!) 'osechi' in supermarkets or department stores.
And then there is also rice cake ('mochi' ), which is a symbol of good fortune and traditionally eaten during the New Year's holidays. But because of their extremely sticky texture, they actually come with a health warning, as every year hundreds of people need to be hospitalised after choking on them, while deaths are also not uncommon, particularly among the elderly.
So one would expect people to stay away from them, but they are so much ingrained in Japanese New Year's tradition that the population is happy enough to take the risk... A bit like the infamous pufferfish (though perhaps not quite as lethal...).
Japanese people take symbolism very seriously, especially on New Year's. Which is understandable, because you wouldn't want to jinx the whole year by doing the wrong thing at the start of it. So millions of people flock to temples and shrines in the first three days (when most people are off work) to pray for good fortune for the coming year.
There is also a tradition to remove any trace of Christmas decorations straight after Christmas and decorate front doors with so-called 'shimekazari', made of pine and bamboo and adorned with various traditional symbolic objects with deep auspicious meanings, meant to invite gods of good fortune and to ward off evil spirits.
Another long-held tradition (also going back to the Heian period) is to send New Year's cards ('nengajo' ). It started out as simple new year's message written by nobility to people who lived too far away for the usual face-to-face new year greetings. When postcards were created by Japan's postal service in 1871, they were adopted as the standard medium, requiring only the writing of 'Happy New Year', one's name and an address.
An interesting twist is that all such New Year's cards that arrive at the post office between 15th and 25th December are guaranteed to be delivered on New Year's Day. So while even most shopping malls and department stores are closed on 1st January, the poor postmen have to run from house to house delivering New Year's cards!
And while the rise of the Internet and electronic messaging services has gradually contributed to a fall in the number of 'nengajo' sent each year, recent estimates put the number of New Year's cards delivered each year at a staggering two billion - that's an average of 15 cards per person!
It's at times like this when it becomes very obvious how much millenia-old traditions are still present in modern Japan.
But that doesn't prevent me from trying to sneak in a few new ones now and then: Growing up in Switzerland, our family would always have meat fondue on New Year's Eve, as the last highlight of the year. So after my 'shock experience' in my very first year in Japan (and our escape to Hawai'i the year after), the following year I introduced meat fondue to my in-laws' house. Luckily for me, they were very receptive to the idea, and it has in fact remained our standard New Year's feast whenever my wife and I spend the New Year's holidays at her parents' place in Nagano, which is most years.
There is a slight difference to Switzerland, though: Back in my home country you simply order the pre-cut meat (arranged nicely on a large plate) and various sauces from the local butcher's. And this being a favourite dish among many Swiss, long queues usually form outside butcher's shops up and down the country on New Year's Eve, by customers picking up their order.
In Japan, that option doesn't exist, so I need to put some work in, by cutting and arranging the meat, and making meat balls myself, while my wife takes care of the sauces. One could say it's a labour of love, and it also means that my mother-in-law is off 'kitchen duty', which I'm sure is appreciated.
Who knows, maybe some time in the future meat fondue will be the meal of choice for the Japanese on New Year's Eve?
A Happy New Year!
Lovely reading ♥️♥️♥️