Japanese New Years : The Japanese New Year (正月, Shōgatsu) is a international festival annual with its own usages. Since 1873, the official Japanese New Year has been celebrated according to the Gregorian calendar (*), on January 1 of each year, new Year's Day (元日, Ganjitsu). However, some events traditional du New Year Japanese are partially celebrated on the first day of the year on the modern Tenpō calendar, the last official lunisolar calendar that was in use until 1872 in the Japan.
(*) The Gregorian calendar is a solar calendar designed at the end of the 1579th century to correct the secular drift of the Julian calendar then in use. At the request of Gregory XIII, Jesuit mathematicians and astronomers from the universities of Salamanca and Coimbra have been preparing the bases for a new calendar since 24. Adopted by Pope Gregory XIII, in the papal bull “Inter gravissimas” of February 1582, 4 , it is implemented in the Catholic States a few months later. The day after Thursday October 1582, 15 is Friday October 1582, XNUMX in Spain, Portugal and the Papal States. Its use then gradually spread in Protestant countries, and throughout the world until the middle of the XNUMXth century. The Gregorian calendar has established itself in most of the world for civil uses; many other calendars are used for religious or traditional purposes. This calendar is named after its instigator, Pope Gregory XIII.
History: Prior to the Meiji era, the date of the Japanese New Year was based on the Japanese versions of the lunisolar calendar (the last of which was the Tenpō calendar) and, before the Jōkyō calendar, on the Chinese version. However, in 1873, five years after the Meiji Restoration, the Japan adopted the Gregorian calendar and the first day of January became the new Year's Day official and cultural at Japan.
Traditional Japanese cuisine: Japanese people eat a selection of spot during celebration New Year's Eve called osechi-ryōri, usually abbreviated in Osechi. Many of these spot are sweet, sour ou dried, so they can be preserved without refrigeration : traditions culinary go back to a time before households had refrigerators and when most stores closed for the holidays. There are many variations of osechi and some foodstuffs consumed in a region are not consumed in other places (or are even considered ominous or even forbidden) on New Years Day.
Another dish popular and the zōni, a Soupe with an rice cake mochi and others ingredients, which differ by region of Japan. It is also very common to eat noodles de buckwheat called toshikoshi soba on the day of ōmisoka (the New Year's Eve du new Year). Today, we often eat sashimi and sushi, as well as non-Japanese foods. To let an overworked stomach rest, a soup of rice to the seven herbs (七 草 粥, nanakusa-gayu) is prepared the seventh day of January, a day known as jinjitsu.
Mochi: Another custom is to create and eat cakes ou meatballs de rice (mochi). The sticky rice steam cooked (mochigome) is put in a container en wood tapped withwater by one person while another person hits him with a large wooden mallet. By crushing the rice, it forms a boulette blanche sticky. This is done before New Years Day and eaten at the beginning of January.
Mochi is made into a New Year's decoration called kagami mochi, formed of two cakes rounds of mochi with a mandarine (daidai) posed on it. The name daidai is said to be auspicious as it means "many generations".
The bell rings: At midnight on December 31, Buddhist temples across Japan ring a total of 108 times (joyanokane, (除 夜 の 鐘)) to symbolize the 108 earthly temptations of Buddhist belief and to get rid of the 108 worldly desires regarding the senses and feelings in every Japanese citizen. A major attraction is the monitored night bell, at Tokyo. It is a traditional Japanese belief that ringing the bells can rid the sins of the passing year. The bell rings 107 times on the 31st and once after midnight.
Postcards: Late December and early January are the busiest for Japanese post offices. The Japanese have a habit of sending New Year's postcards (年 賀 状, nengajō) to their friends and relatives, similar to the Western custom of sending Christmas cards. Holidays. The original purpose was to share the news of oneself and immediate family with distant friends and relatives - to tell those one did not meet often that he / she was alive and well.
The sending of these greetings is scheduled to arrive on January 1st. The Post guarantees delivery that day if the cards are marked with the word nengajō and mailed between mid-December and a few days before the end of the year. To deliver them on time, the Post generally hires part-time students.
It is customary to refrain from sending these postcards when there has been a death in the family during the year. In this case, a family member sends a simple mourning postcard (喪 中葉 書, mochū hagaki) to inform friends and relatives that they should not send New Year cards out of respect for the deceased.
People get their nengajō from many sources. Stationers sell preprinted cards. Most of them have the Chinese New Year's zodiac sign as a motif, conventional greetings, or both. The Chinese zodiac has a 12 year cycle. Each year is represented by an animal. The animals are, in order: Rat, Ox, Tiger, Rabbit, Dragon, Snake, Horse, Goat, Monkey, Rooster, Dog and Pig.
2008 was the year of the Rat, 2009 Ox, 2010 Tiger, Rabbit 2011, Dragon 2012 and Snake 2013. 2020 will be Rat again. Famous characters like Snoopy (2006) and other cartoon characters like Mickey and Minnie Mouse (2008) have been particularly Popular during their years famous.
Addressing is usually done by hand, and is an opportunity to show off your handwriting (shodō). Postcards can have spaces for the sender to write a personal message. Blank cards are available, so people can handwrite or draw their own. Rubber stamps with conventional messages and with the annual animal are on sale at department stores and other outlets, and many people buy ink brushes for personal greetings. Special printing devices are popular, especially among people who practice the craft. Computer software also allows artists to create and print their own designs. Very sociable people, who have hundreds of cards to write on, can go to printing shops and choose from a wide variety of cards prepared with short messages so that the sender only has to address them. Despite the ubiquity of email, nengajō remains very popular, even though the younger generation hardly sends cards. They prefer to exchange digital greetings via cell phones, and in recent years society as a whole has gradually accepted digital greetings.
Conventional greetings include:
kotoshi mo yoroshiku o-negai-shimasu (今年 も よ ろ し く お 願 い し ま す, 'I hope your favor again in the coming year')
(shinnen) akemashite o-medetō-gozaimasu ((新年) あ け ま し て お め で と う ご ざ い ま す, 'Happiness at the dawn [of a new year]').
kinga shinnen (謹 賀 新年, 'Happy New Year').
gashō (賀 正, to celebrate January).
shoshun / hatsuharu (初春, "beginning of spring"; in the traditional lunar calendar, a year begins at the beginning of spring).
geishun (迎春, welcome spring).
Othoshimada: The day of New Year, the Japanese have a custom known as otoshidama where adult parents give children money. It is distributed in small decorated envelopes called pochibukuro, similar to Chinese shūgi-bukuro or hóngbāo and Scottish handel. In the Edo period, department stores and wealthy families distributed a small bag of mochi and mandarine to spread happiness everywhere. The amount of money given depends on the age of the child but is usually the same if there is more than one child so that no one feels offended. It is not uncommon for amounts greater than 5 (approximately US $ 000) to be donated.
Poetry: The traditions of New Year Japanese poetry also includes haiku (poems of 17 syllables, in three lines of five, seven and five) and renga (linked poetry). All of the above traditions would be appropriate to include in haiku as kigo (words of season). There are also haiku that celebrate a lot of the "first" of the new year, such as the "first sun" (hatsuhi) or "first sunrise", "first laughter" (waraizome - To the new year with a smile is considered a good sign), and first dream (hatsuyume). Since the traditional new year was later in the year than the current date, many of them mention the beginning of spring.
With the New Year's postcard, the haiku may mention "first letter" (hatsudayori - meaning the first exchange of letters), "first calligraphy" (kakizome) and "first brush" (fude hajime).
Games: It was also customary to play many games of the New Year. These include hanetsuki, takoage (kite), koma (spinning top), sugoroku, fukuwarai (whereby a blindfolded person places paper parts of a face, such as eyes, eyebrows, a nose, and a mouth, on a paper face), and karuta (Japanese playing cards).
Entertainment: There are many shows created as end of year and beginning of year entertainment, and some being a special edition of the regular shows. For many decades, it was customary to watch the Kōhaku Uta Gassen TV show broadcast on NHK on New Year's Eve. The show features two teams, red and white, of popular music artists competing against each other.
Sport: The Emperor's Cup final, the national association football playoff tournament in Japan, takes place on New Year. The finale has been held on New Years Day since 1969 and is typically broadcast on NHK.
Mixed martial arts organizations in Japan such as Pride FC and Dream (mixed martial arts) have held New Years Eve events and the Rizin Fighting Federation has hosted New Years events since its founding in 2015.
Beethoven's Ninth Symphony, with accompanying choir, is traditionally performed throughout Japan during the season du New Year. In December 2009, for example, there were 55 performances of the symphony by various major orchestras and choirs at the Japan.
The Ninth was introduced in Japan during World War I by German prisoners held at the Bandō POW camp. Japanese orchestras, notably the NHK Symphony Orchestra, began playing the symphony in 1925. During World War II, the imperial government promoted performances of the symphony, including on New Year's Eve, to encourage performance. allegiance to Japanese nationalism. After the war, orchestras and choirs, suffering economic hardship during the reconstruction of Japan, promoted performances of the piece around the New Year due to the music's popularity with audiences. In the 1960s, performances of the symphony on New Years became widespread, including the participation of local choirs and orchestras, and established the traditional which continues today.
Little New Year: There is also a international festival Little New Year's associate (小 正月, koshōgatsu), traditionally celebrating the first full moon of the new year, on the 15th of the first lunar month (around mid-February). This is now sometimes celebrated on January 15th, in various ways. The main events of Koshōgatsu are rites and practices praying for a harvest plentiful ; the groats de rice Asked adzuki beans (小 豆粥, azukigayu) is traditionally eaten in the morning and participates in the divinatory ceremony of rice porridge. In addition, New Year's decorations are removed around this date, and some temples hold events, such as in Torin-in.
This corresponds to the Chinese Lantern Festival.
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