Japan prepares to ring in New Year in its own unique way

Her plans for an overseas summer holiday were put on hold, and there has been concern over her husband’s income and job security. Now they must ensure that the entire family remains vigilant against Omicron variant.

But Hosomura is still looking forward to welcoming 2022. “I want to take long walks in the parks near my parents’ home, go to restaurants, play with my son and catch up with my parents,” she told DW. “We are luckier than most people as I will be able to take a week off, but I really do need to recharge my batteries after a difficult 2021,” she said. “Not having to worry about things for a few days will, I hope, prepare me for what is coming next year.”

Along with Obon in August, New Year is the most important holiday period on the Japanese calendar. Typically, people who have moved to the cities for work or their studies travel back to their hometowns to spend the vacation with their families and catch up with old friends. Companies have already started winding down their operations, and most will not reopen until the middle of next week.

For most Japanese, the holidays will follow a familiar pattern of traditional meals, visits to the local temple to pray for health and good fortune in the year ahead, and long-running television shows. The final trip to the supermarket typically takes place on the morning of New Year’s Eve, as many shops will be closed over the holidays, before many families settle down to The Red and White Song Battle aired by national broadcaster NHK.

This New Year’s Eve staple has been running since 1945 and pits the nation’s top female singers — the red team — against their male counterparts, in white.

As the clocks tick toward midnight, residents of villages and towns across Japan will brave the cold to head to their local shrine, where they will stand in line to approach the steps leading up to the community’s place of worship, pull on a rope to sound a gong — a necessary move, to ensure the gods are awake and listening — and bow their heads to make a short prayer for the year to come.

In a tradition that has largely been lost amid the tower blocks of the cities, neighbours keep warm around blazing braziers and share mugs of steaming “amazake” rice wine.

At midnight, the huge bronze bells of countless temples can be heard echoing across the nation’s darkened countryside. Another tradition for many Japanese is to get up early to see the first sunrise of the New Year, with beaches or locations overlooking the iconic Mount Fuji always being popular spots.

Lunch on New Year’s Day is often “osechi-ryori,” a selection of small dishes that are sweet or dried and can be kept without refrigeration. Typically prepared in advance of the holiday or, more commonly now, purchased in advance, they mean that housewives do not have to prepare meals on the day and can also have time off.

The most popular “osechi-ryori” dishes include “kuromame” simmered black soybeans, herring roe, dried sardines in a sweet soy sauce, burdock, “kamaboko” pink-and-white seafood paste and mashed chestnut and sweet potatoes. New Year cards will be delivered at some point during the day, most this year bearing designs featuring a tiger, as 2022 is the year of the tiger, according to the traditional Chinese zodiac.