New Year in Japan

New year is very important for Japanese. As Christmas is the most important of the year for some western people, new year is the most important for Japanese, and family usually gather during the time. On new year’s eve, we usually eat “soba” which is a noodle made from 100% buckwheat flour. Long noodle represents a long life. These days some people eat ramen or other noodles because they think as long as it is noodles, it represents a long life. While we call the Soba “Toshikoshi Soba” that is eaten on new year’s eve, they call the ramen “Toshikoshi Ramen”. “Toshikoshi” means year-passing. 

While many countries have fireworks at 12 midnight, you will hear bells ringing at temples for 108 times! 108 is the number of the desires which is called “bonno” in Japanese. It is said that Buddhist monks ring the bell 108 time to expel the “bonno”. 

On the new year day, many Japanese visit temples and shrines to pray or wish. Food is always important for Japanese. We eat mochi and “osechi ryori” which looks like the picture below.

During the first three days on the new year, all the stores were used to be closed, and Japanese people (usually mothers) had to prepare this amount of food and eat them for three days. Nowadays most of the stores are opened in Japan, and only the tradition stays.