New Year's Customs for the Japanese New Year

Welcoming the new year is a big deal for the Japanese, with families cleaning their homes inside and out from late December, and some hanging a rope above the front door that is said to banish ghosts and spirits.

When the New Year arrives, many Japanese wear traditional kimonos to temples or shrines, where bells ring 108 times, meaning everyone has 108 wishes for the new year, and listening to the bells cleanses the mind.

The temple gives everyone who visits a white slip of paper with a message about what will happen in the new year, and people read it and hang it on a tree next to the temple.

Children receive "New Year's money" from their elders in the New Year, while adults send New Year's cards to each other starting in December, and the post office makes sure that all the cards are delivered to people by New Year's Day.

Japan only celebrates the New Year, not the Spring Festival. It is considered New Year's Day until Jan. 15, and on the 5th, stores open, the stock market opens, wholesale markets are crowded, and everyone has last year on their minds.

In Yamaguchi Prefecture, former Prime Minister Shinzo Abe's hometown, the day of the 5th, the fresh fish auction market early in the morning ushered in a large number of buyers, all to buy blowfish. Eating blowfish on New Year's Day represents good luck in Japanese tradition, and that's what the big crowd came for. Fugu is pronounced "fugu" in Japanese, which is similar to the pronunciation of "fuku". Many Japanese people buy fugu after New Year's to pray for happiness throughout the year, and then take it home and eat it.

Yamaguchi Prefecture is particularly famous for its blowfish, and many people bid for it as soon as the boats that went out on the night of Jan. 4 arrived at the fishing port on the morning of the 5th. A kilogram of natural blowfish can fetch about 22,000 yen (about 1,700 yuan), which is a hefty price. The bidding process is a bit like selling livestock in the rural areas of northwest China, where two people use their fingers to set the price through a cloth tube like a sleeve, and if they get a deal, they take the pufferfish underneath them, and if they don't get a deal, the seller takes the tube and goes to someone else. Even if you don't want to buy the fish, it's fun to watch the auction, as if the "blessing" is all around you.

After removing the skin, liver and other internal organs, blowfish is a very tasty dish. In ancient China, it was said that one should "eat blowfish to the death," a phrase that evokes the flavor and poison of the fish.

The master chefs who make blowfish in Japan need to be professionally qualified. They also do it in a special way, slicing the flesh of the blowfish thinner than paper and arranging it in a chrysanthemum shape, piece by piece, on a plate. When eaten with a little bit of yuzu-flavored soy sauce, the freshness of the blowfish instantly becomes a kind of "happiness" in the mouth. The Japanese call blowfish a "delicacy," and not everyone can eat it on New Year's Day. However, most ordinary families make a very large New Year's dinner. There are not many hot foods in Japanese cuisine, and most of them are eaten without warming them up, so they are ready to eat. The rice is served in a double-layered lacquered box, with two or four small boxes in each layer, in which a small dish is served. The most important item in the rice is black beans (kuromame), which means "hard work, seriousness". A small fish called Tasaku, which means "to make a lot of work and have a good harvest," is also a must-have dish for the New Year's dinner.

Praying for wealth is the same in every country. Boiled and mashed chestnuts or sweet potatoes are piled up into a small mountain, known as "kumisan" in Japanese, which is sweet to the mouth and means "gold mountain," and is naturally a must-have for every meal.

Drinking is also called "San San Jiuzan". Lacquerware made of small trays of wine, three stacked on top of each other. Tusu wine is also served in a lacquer pot. Hosts and guests from top to bottom out of the small plate, the host will be on the plate point some Tusu wine, the guests drink and then point again, a plate to drink three times, and finally complete the "San San Jiuzhan" ceremony. The plate that has just been used is wiped briefly and then used by the next guest, including children, and the drinking of tsukudani is an important part of the New Year's festivities every year. Japanese people eat ekiban-maki on New Year's Day. Originally, this thick sushi roll is a special food for the Japanese to eat to welcome spring, called "Keikata roll", and "Keikata" is the direction of the God of Fortune, that is, the direction of good fortune. It is customary for Japanese people to eat Eboshi rolls to welcome spring.

The Ekigata Maki is thicker and larger than the usual sushi and contains seven special foods. In order for people to eat the blessings, the Japanese borrowed the legend of the seven gods of good fortune in China, and wrapped seven kinds of food, including dried zucchini, strips of cucumber, mushrooms, eggs, eel, and dried fish flakes, in sushi and named it "Ekigata Maki". The Japanese believe that by eating a thick Ekigata Maki towards the Ekigata, one's wishes will be fulfilled, and one's wishes will be averted and good fortune will be attracted. "It is important not to cut off the length of the roll, as cutting off the sushi means cutting off good fortune, which is a major taboo.

There are many legends about the origin of the Ekigata roll. Some sources say that during the Edo period, merchants in Osaka ate ekiben rolls to pray for business prosperity, and they have been passed down to the present day. There is also a theory that it originated from the Iwari Gensha Shrine in Japan. When the shrine holds a large event, it distributes a type of sushi called "Yume Fuku Maki Sushi" to those who come to worship. This sushi is called "Yumofuku Maki Sushi," and it is said that if you eat it, you can drive away demons and evil spirits, and if you eat it without cutting it off, you can't cut off the karmic bond, which also means "rolled up.

Nowadays, Japanese merchants eat Keikata rolls as a form of promotion to publicize, the public is also happy to win a good luck.