New Year's Eve is omisoka (大晦日) in Japanese. There are some customs to do on New Year's Eve. We clean the whole house to welcome the new year.
At night we eat toshikoshi soba (年越しそば), New Year's Eve Buckwheat Noodles. Toshikoshi (年越し) means crossing over from one year to the next, soba (そば) is buckwheat noodles. People eat long thin toshikoshi soba, hoping for the long healthy life of the whole family in the coming year. This custom started in the middle of the Edo era.
Just before the new year the temples start ringing their bells for 108 times. This is called jyoya no kane (除夜の鐘). There are some theories why they ring 108 times, but the most popular one is 108 symbolizes the casting away of 108 earthly desires called bonno (煩悩).
There are many special TV programs. One of them is kohaku uta gassen(紅白歌合戦), Red vs White singing contest by NHK. Popular singers split into two teams, women in the red team and men in the white, and compete. This year was the 60th anniversary and the white team won.
After that there is a program titled yuku toshi kuru toshi(ゆく年来る年), going year and coming year. It covers the midnight celebrations of the country.
I hope you will have a chance to spend the new year in Japan someday.
No comments:
Post a Comment