Oshogatsu: the Japanese New Year

Oshogatsu (お正月) is the most important celebration in the Japanese calendar. More than the equivalent of Christmas and New Year combined, it is the moment when Japan stops — cities empty, families reunite, and almost everything closes during the first days of January. For a traveller arriving at that time, the experience can be both fascinating and disorienting: temples are packed with people, but the restaurants and shops you normally rely on may be shut.

New Year’s Eve: Omisoka

The 31st of December is called Omisoka (大晦日). Unlike its Western equivalent, the Japanese tradition is not particularly festive or focused on the stroke of midnight. Television broadcasts the Kohaku Uta Gassen (紅白歌合戦), the most-watched music programme of the year on NHK, where the country’s most popular artists perform split into a red team and a white team. Many families watch it together.

At midnight, Buddhist temples ring the bell 108 times — the number corresponds to the 108 bonno (煩悩), the worldly desires that Buddhism considers the source of suffering. The ritual is called Joya no Kane (除夜の鐘) and the bell starts before midnight to finish in the new year. At large temples such as Chion-in in Kyoto or Zojoji in Tokyo, it is possible to hear the bell live.

Toshikoshi soba (年越しそば) — buckwheat noodles eaten on New Year’s Eve — are another standard ritual. The idea is to cross into the new year with something that can be “cut” easily, like the long noodles: cutting off the old year, beginning the new one.

Hatsumode

The first visit of the year to a temple or shrine is called hatsumode (初詣) and it is one of the most crowded moments of the year in Japan. During the first three days of January, the most famous shrines and temples receive millions of visitors. Meiji Jingu in Tokyo, Naritasan Shinshoji in Narita, and Fushimi Inari in Kyoto are among those with the highest attendance.

At hatsumode, people make the first offering of the year, draw an omikuji (御御籤 — a random fortune slip), and many buy a hamaya (a decorative arrow that wards off evil spirits) or a new year’s amulet. The previous year’s hamaya is returned to the same temple or shrine to be burned.

If you visit Japan during this period, the atmosphere at the temples during hatsumode has no equivalent at any other time of year: long but orderly queues, incense, the January cold, street food stalls all around, and the sense of witnessing something very distinctly Japanese.

Osechi and ozoni

New Year’s food has its own rituals. Osechi ryori (おせち料理) is a collection of elaborate dishes prepared in the days before the holiday and stored in lacquered stacking boxes called jubako (重箱). Each dish carries a symbolic meaning: cooked prawns (ébi) represent longevity, black soybeans (kuromame) diligence, herring roe (kazunoko) fertility.

Traditional osechi is designed to last several days without reheating — historically because no cooking was done during the first days of the year. Modern versions have evolved considerably: designer osechi sets, osechi from famous restaurant chefs, and even McDonald’s Japan osechi (a real phenomenon) are all on offer. But the lacquered box with dishes arranged in layers remains the central image of the New Year’s table.

Ozoni (お雑煮) is a soup eaten on the morning of January 1st with mochi (rice cake) inside. The recipe varies enormously by region: in Tokyo the broth is clear (dashi from kombu and katsuobushi) with rectangular mochi; in Kyoto the broth is white miso with round mochi. It is one of the most regionally varied dishes in all of Japanese cuisine.

Nengajo

Nengajo (年賀状) are New Year’s postcards sent to arrive on January 1st. Japan Post runs a special service: if you deposit them before a December deadline, they hold them and deliver them all on New Year’s Day. Millions of cards are sent every year — though the tradition has declined significantly with smartphones.

Nengajo designs are based on the Chinese zodiac animal of the coming year (Japan uses the same 12-animal cycle). Designing and sending nengajo to family, friends, and colleagues is something that occupies many people throughout December.

What closes and what doesn’t

The first three days of January — called Sanganichi (三が日) — are the most festive and also the most closed. Small shops, many restaurants, and offices shut. Department stores and shopping centres open, some from January 1st itself — in fact the January sales and their signature lucky bags (fukubukuro, bags of assorted products at reduced prices) are a phenomenon of their own.

Temples, shrines, and public parks are open and full of life. Public transport runs on holiday schedules. If you travel during these dates, planning meals in advance matters more than at any other time of year.

New Year for residents

Living in Japan during Oshogatsu has something enchanting and something claustrophobic about it. Cities become almost deserted — people return to their home towns (inaka, 田舎) to celebrate with family. Tokyo in early January can have a quality of quiet it never has at any other time of year. Japanese New Year family gatherings are long, involving a lot of food, traditional board and card games (karuta, sugoroku), and the first money envelopes of the year for the children — otoshidama (お年玉).