In Japan, New Year, known as shogatsu, is the biggest holiday. Filled with various traditions, New Year’s is a religious holiday celebrated with friends, family, and food.
Prior to the New Year, nengajo, postcards similar to Christmas cards in America, are sent to friends and family to update them about family news and include designs related to the year’s Chinese zodiac.
On New Year’s Eve, Buddhist temples ring their bells 108 times, each representing one of the 108 human sins and desires in Buddhist belief. Believing that ringing the bell will diminish sins from the previous year, Japanese go with their families and partners to temples or shrines to ring bells, purchase omamori (lucky charms), and omikuji (paper fortunes). It is also customary to watch the New Year’s sunrise and to pray to the Amaterasu, the Shinto sun goddess, for health and happiness.
Soba, or buckwheat noodles are eaten on New Year’s Eve and are believed to bring about a long life. Special importance is placed on making and eating mochi, rice cakes made by boiling and mashing sticky rice. Used as a decoration leading up to New Year’s, rice cakes are said to represent the going and coming years, generations of a family, or the moon and the sun.
On New Year’s morning, ozoni, mochi soup, is consumed with different ingredients across regions and families. New Year’s day is filled with a wide variety of foods called osechi-ryori. Stored in jubako, the colorful dishes are packed into stacked boxes similar to bento boxes. While dishes vary across regions and families, small dishes such as fishcake, rolled omelet, seaweed rolls, and sweet black soybeans are common.
