あけましておめでとうございます！
Happy New Year to all my loved ones! Welcome, 2014, Year of the Horse and
goodbye to 2013, it was nice while it lasted but let’s get this show on the
road, shall we?
So how do the Japanese ring in the
new year? Just like in America, depending on the region, traditions may vary,
but also like America, there are several national traditions. Unlike America,
said traditions are about paying respect to the previous year and focusing your
energy and time on starting over thinking about your family and not so much
about whose teeth you’ll be licking at midnight.
In Northern Japan, Shougatsu is
celebrated very traditionally. There are traditional foods, decorations, events
and activities for everyone, and everyone typically does everything with their
family. For example, before the break, I asked one of the English teachers what
his plans were for the New Year holiday and he told me he’d travel with them to
his parents’ home and he’d take them all to an onsen. I couldn’t help myself: I
said, “I can’t imagine doing that with my family, it’s just very different in
America.” We laughed and he said “Oh, no, it’s very natural. I think everyone
should enjoy the bath with family. It’s a special time for parents and
children!”
Other such special times include
cleaning the house. On New Year’s Eve, everyone in the family helps to clean
the house. Having grown up with my fastidiously tidy half-Japanese mother, I’ve
seen the abridged version of house cleaning. I couldn’t imagine how a
traditional Japanese household cleans for an entire day…until I actually saw it
in action.
Across the parking lot from my apartment,
there are a couple houses with small families. As I moved in and out of my own
apartment, cleaning-lite, I got a glimpse of their own methods. Futons were
hung out to dry and subsequently had the dusty crap beaten out of them.
Sidewalks, still wet from the melting snow, were scrubbed. Windows were cleaned
inside and out THEN polished with window soap. Furniture and rugs were moved in and out all
day. God knows what it was like inside!
The idea is to purge your home of
the dust and dirt and bad energy of the old year and to start over completely
new and idle from housework on New Year’s Day. Every mote of 2013 is now out of
my apartment!
So now your apartment is squeaky
clean, it’s time to take stock and make sure you have all the proper decorations. The primary
two are kadomatsu and kagami mochi, both of which have religious significance.
The biggest difference between Western and Japanese New Years is the emphasis
on spiritualism in Japan. For the Japanese, the end of one year is completely
separate from the start of the next. In this interim period, the spirits and
gods are said to come to Earth and be the most active. It’s a suspended time
when two planes of existence become one, and naturally, respect has to be paid
to the honored and invisible guests.
Kadomatsu are large or small bamboo and
pine arrangements that are placed inside the house our around the front door of
homes and businesses. Bamboo has intense significance in Japanese culture, from
being used for construction to tatami to chopsticks. It symbolizes heaven and
earth, binding them together. The kadomatsu act as sort of a landing strip for
lucky spirits, guiding them to people’s homes where they can reside in the
bamboo for a few days, bringing luck and happiness to the house and starting
the year off with hauntingly good spirits.
Then, on January 7th,
the kadomatsu are taken to the local shrine and ceremoniously thrown onto a
fire. The eviction notice delivered, the spirits return to their own world.
On a more personal level, kagami mochi are rice cake
offerings for the spirits of departed family members. The sticky round balls
are stacked and placed on a small alter and decorated with flowers, pine
branches and other symbols of the new year. Then they’re topped with a mandarin
orange or “mikan.” Apparently, the original fruit of choice was a larger citrus
called “daidai” which roughly means “generations and generations” and implies
that many generations will follow the previous. Makes sense in the frame of
reference: offering it to a deceased relative. But mikan are smaller, sweeter
and look a little prettier on the mochi, so the tradition changed, but the
symbolism is the same as always.
Whew, you’re exhausted! You’ve been
cleaning and decorating for days, and it’s finally New Year’s Eve. What’s for
eats, ma? Meatloaf? Heck, no! Osechi-ryouri is traditional Japanese New Year
food. The tradition of eating meals that can be prepared ahead of time and
saved for a couple days goes back to the Heian Period lasting from 794-1185! The
idea was it was forbidden to cook for the first three days of the new year. But
things change. All of the food is auspicious, so they’re still very popular,
but of course if you want to get a fresh bento from Jois or zap a cup-o-soba in
the microwave, nobody’s going to blame you. So let’s review a few:
Soba: Japanese people eat soba for
days before and after New Years. The healthy noodle is very long (excellent for
slurping!) and signifies a long and healthy life. The more you eat, the
healthier you are, right? Just don’t tell the people standing in line at Mickey
D’s!
Prawns or “ebi:” In the shell, they
look like giant shrimp with long, wispy beards, symbolizing prosperity and long
life. They’re usually presented whole in the traditional style, with their back
hunched. Apparently, this also symbolizes old life. It’s like eating a little
grandpa!
Lotus root or “renkon:” The texture
is a bit like a water chestnut, but as you slice them into disks, they look
like Swiss cheese! You can look through the holes and supposedly into the New
Year.
Kelp or “konbu:” Westerners get
squeamish at the idea of eating seaweed, but it’s ridiculously healthy! Full of
vitamins, minerals and miracles, the beautiful green sounds like “yorokobu”
which is a Japanese word for happiness. Trust me, eat a few konbu salads. Happy
= healthy.
Sea bream or “tai:” It’s a salty,
mild tasting fish, readily available at bonenkai (wink!) with a strong
relationship to the very word, “auspicious.” In Japanese, the word is “medetai.”
You can’t spell luck without fish!
Stuffed to the gills, what do you
do now? It’s getting late, so better start heading to your local shrine or
temple. Close to midnight, temples all over Japan ring out 108 times to scare
away the Buddhist 108
Earthly Desires.
Also called the 108 sins,
defilements, or vices, with each toll, you’re meant to reflect on them and send
them off with the old year so you can start over completely new and innocent.
On this extensive list are vices like anger, intolerance, self-hatred,
contempt, selfishness, prejudice, pessimism, manipulation, callousness,
ingratitude, presumption, ignorance, lying, indifference, desire of fame, disrespect
and self-denial. The list goes on. I’ll admit, I’ve certainly been guilty of a
few of these, especially self-denial and self-hatred from time to time. But
with the new year, I get to start over again, already determined to be more
self-loving and forgiving.
At midnight, as you stand in line
waiting to enter the temple, you’ll hear people counting down from “ju,..kyu...hachi…shichi…”
and with “ichi…zero!” everyone screams and hugs and the traditions of “hatsu” can begin. Meaning “the firsts,” there’s
a series of “firsts” of the year to check off your list.
First and foremost,
the first temple visit of the year. When you reach the temple itself, toss in a
few coins in offering, ring the large bell and clap your hands twice to
announce yourself. Silently say a prayer or make your wish and move aside.
There are vendors inside the temple where you can buy slips of paper bearing a
fortune, “omikuji.” Read your fortune by lamplight then hang it on a tree or on
one of the large wood and twine racks around the grounds.
All the temples also have a large
bonfire going somewhere on the grounds. Priests or monks or just citizens bring
forward charms and emblems from the previous year and POOF! Throw them on the
fire and give them a good old Viking send-off! When I realized what was feeding
the fire, I was really surprised! At first glance, it seems like a violent way
to dismiss the old year! But when you think about it, it’s like a funeral pyre.
It’s a clean, symbolic and probably the most respectful way to bid farewell to
the last year. It’s like cremating a dead family member, done with love and
honor. It’s a much nicer and more beautiful and moving tradition than macking
with some stranger in a confetti cloud, drunk off your ass.
I went to Hiraizumi to welcome the
New Year at Chusonji Temple. Thousands of people go there during the first
three days to ring a large bell, say their prayers and pay their respects at
the dozens of shrines, including the breathtaking, gold shrine, Kinkuji.
Other first of the year include “hatsuhinode”
or “first sunrise.” Families and individuals stay up all night and at the crack
of dawn watch the sun rise. The condition of the sun is supposed to spell out
what the year will bring. I couldn’t make myself do hatsuhinode, but it
probably wouldn’t have mattered since at 3:30 when I got home, it was still
dark and raining and the next morning it was still cloudy with a heavy mix of
rain and snow going all day. Not sure if that’s a terribly good way to start
the year. But at least the wind and rain brought a beautiful, thick covering of
fresh new snow today! About a foot of it!
Despite the poor weather on the 1st,
I went to my local shrine and made my wishes again. I also bought a tablet with
a horse painting. I’ll write a wish on the back and then can hang it on the
frame in the shrine later.
“Hatsuyume” is the “first dream.”
Pay attention to your first dream since it’s supposed to come true!
“Hatsu-uri” is the “first sale” and
from experiencing it first-hand, seems to be the second busiest “hatsu” after
the first temple visit. “Fukubukuro” or “lucky bags” are big grab-bags of merchandise
that department stores put together and then sell for a few days at the start
of the year. This brings in HUGE business since each bag can be between 1,000
yen up to 30,000…sometimes more! But they all get sold! It’s a great way to get
rid of old product and attract attention to the new seasonal line-up.
I couldn’t
help myself and went ahead and bought a few bags: one full of chocolate, the
other with coffee beans. Guess I’ll be spending a little Christmas money on a
bean grinder so I can enjoy some of Doubtor Coffee’s New Year Blend.
So with my first Japanese style New
Year under my belt, how do I plan to spend this year? The Japanese don’t so
much have “resolutions” as prayers or wishes for the year. I myself definitely
want to work on rebuilding my sense of self-love which since coming to Japan
took a bit of a back seat due to a mix of obligatory modesty and negative
influences. And that’s about it: I need to focus on making myself happier. One
of my worst habits is forgetting to take care of myself, physically and
mentally. But this year, I’m living by Mae West’s words: “Personality is the
glitter that sends your little gleam across the footlights…into that big black
space where the audience is.”
Swans, though. Swans are easy. And the best place to watch them in Kitakami is the Athletic Park south of town. Park and walk through the red pine trees, along the frozen pond and you'll hear them before you see them. At first, I thought it was just the wind whistling through the grove. But just follow your ears, you'll find them.
